Survival of the Fittest?
by AthanMortis
Summary: So you find yourself in an environment considered hostile even on a world full of monsters. What do you do? Try to survive, of course. And if you manage to do that? Well, then things can change...
1. Freefalling

**Don't own anything belonging to other people. I'm only saying it once, as that should be enough.**

* * *

It had been a grueling mission, but teams RWBY and JNPR were finally on their way back to Beacon.

It had been a couple of weeks since the Breach, and after a week or so of rest for those involved, everybody had been given missions to reassure the populace. Due to an overabundance of missions, even first year students were sent on some of the higher tiered ones.

The two teams had just spent 3 days in a rather remote settlement that had requested help. It wasn't a difficult mission, normally easily accomplished by even a single mid-level first year team, but the location meant that the two best teams in the year were sent instead, as they'd have to fly near an area of Sanus known colloquially as the Deathlands.

The Deathlands were a large area of forests and lakes with a disproportionately huge number of high level Grimm. Nobody went into the Deathlands by choice, as it was essentially a death sentence. Many high level, experienced huntsmen had been lost to it throughout the ages, so that now it was avoided as much as possible. However, as it covered a relatively large area of land, it could sometimes be inevitable that one would have to travel near it to get anywhere. There had been many proposals by Ozpin to send large teams into at least the edges of the Deathlands in order to clear them as much as possible, mitigating the potential threat they posed not just to nearby settlements but Vale itself, however they had all been rejected by the Council.

Jaune Arc sat looking out the window of the bullhead the teams were travelling in, gazing at the lush, untamed wilderness stretching below him, happy to be heading home where he could relax a bit, despite his motion sickness trying to ruin things. Pyrrha was sitting beside him, gently humming to herself as she examined Milo with a small smile. Nora was beside her, uncharacteristically asleep, snoring on Ren's shoulder while he read a book.

Across from Jaune sat his fellow team leader, Ruby, swinging her legs a bit as she watched Pyrrha work. Weiss was seated beside her partner, filing her nails. Blake was next on the seat, also reading a book, while Yang was listening to music on her scroll.

Jaune was just starting to doze lightly when the bullhead rocked, making him jerk up. "What was that?"

"Probably just some turbulence." Weiss commented idly. She was still slightly icy to Jaune, but she'd gotten a lot better since he stopped asking her out so much.

As if to directly contradict the heiress the bullhead rocked again and the pilot's voice came through from the intercom. "Students, seems we have a flock of Nevermore trying to bring us down. No large ones at this time, but they are causing trouble. If you would be so kind as to take care of them?"

Yang grinned, pulling her earbuds out of her ears. "Alright! Something to do! I was getting bored."

Everybody but Jaune got their long ranged weapons ready. Nora was prepping Magnhild with a grin when he looked at her. "Nora, you hold back for now. If they're close to the bullhead your explosives will do more harm than good."

Nora pouted. "Aww… Fine…"

Jaune reached up for the railing above as the doors opened. Almost immediately, small Nevermore swarmed, trying to get in, and everybody started firing, making the Grimm drop like flies. Yang was laughing as she fired her shotgun gauntlets, while Ruby fired Crescent Rose with precision and elemental ammo, trying to take out groups of enemies at a time. Standing close to Ruby, Weiss was using Myrtenaster to send out elemental attacks, primary electric ones, frying the Nevermore. Pyrrha was also taking careful shots, wanting to make every one count as Ren launched a barrage of bullets to hit as many as possible.

This lasted many long minutes but the cloud of Grimm seemed endless, just as dense as at the beginning. Jaune looked out the window of the other side of the bullhead only for his eyebrows to scrunch together. There were almost no Grimm out there, despite it not being defended. He supposed that could be just the Grimm focusing on the opportunity to kill the humans, but his gut told him there was something wrong. Then he realized the bullhead was tilted slightly to the side, indicating it was turning, and he felt a thrill of horror as understanding struck. He rushed to the intercom and slammed the button. "Why are we turning!?" he shouted.

The pilot's voice came back, surprised. "We're trying to keep away from the bulk of the nevermore, but they're following us. Why?"

"They're herding us! They want us to move this way! Where are we!?" Jaune yelled back.

"We're… over the Deathlands…" The pilot finished in horrified comprehension. He had been so focused on the flock that he hadn't paid attention to where they were.

Jaune felt like a lead weight had settled in his stomach. "Screw the Nevermore! Get use away as quickly as possible before-"

"Jaune!" Nora called, pointing out the window.

Jaune turned and saw shapes launching themselves out of the woods beneath them. He turned towards the others and yelled "Brace yourselves!" before grabbing hold of the handrail again as the bullhead was rocked. He was gratified to see the others had listened, managing to keep steady.

"Looks like we've got Griffons and larger Nevermores!" Ren called back.

"Screw it! Nora, blow them away!" Jaune said, making the hammer wielder laugh gleefully and move forward, Magnhild primed and ready. She started firing at the larger Grimm, making sure to aim for the ones furthest from the aircraft and letting the others deal with the closest ones. Jaune turned back to the intercom, which was still on. "Like I was saying, get us the hell out of here as quickly as you can! If you have to go through the damn swarm, do it! We need to get away from this area or we'll be overwhelmed really fast!"

"Affirmative, hold on to something!" The pilot called out as bullhead leveled out and quickly made its way forward, ramming through the smaller Grimm. The students quickly took over trying to keep the larger Grimm away.

It looked like they were going to make it out when the tail of the bullhead was rammed, causing the craft to spin. Weiss lost her grip and nearly went flying out but Ruby quickly grabbed her arm, keeping her from flying away even as they continued to spin. "Hold on Weiss, I've got you!" Ruby held her partner as tight as she could, but she wasn't as physically strong as the others and she was losing her grip on the rail as well. She whimpered in pain and panic, trying desperately to get her friend back in, but she couldn't take much more. Before long she lost her grip on the rail and went flying out with a shriek. Much like she had for Weiss, however, someone had grabbed Ruby's arm and was keeping her from flying away even as she in turn did the same for Weiss. She turned her head to see Jaune holding her, straining.

"I've got you!" He called, gritting his teeth. He had barely managed to make it to catch Ruby, almost as much due to luck as anything else. Now he was trying to pull them back in even as the bullhead tried to stabilize, and nobody could help, as they were all trying to keep from flying out as well, though Yang was looking terrified as she watched her sister hanging tenuously.

"Don't let go!" Weiss screamed, tears of fear on her face. Normally she wouldn't be so afraid, nor would the others, considering they'd been dropped into the Emerald Forest during initiation and got through that fine, but this was the Deathlands. Anybody who dropped down there was practically guaranteed to die, no matter what condition they were in when they landed. So right now she was terrified.

Hearing the fear in Weiss' voice, along with the whimpers of Ruby as she was stretched, along with her own fear, gave Jaune strength he couldn't have found before. With a yell of effort he pulled, managing to slowly pull the girls back in, muscles straining desperately. Before long he managed to get Ruby in, and with her help Weiss was soon inside as well.

Weiss gave a small sob of relief and looked up at Jaune with a grateful smile. He gave a small, soft smile in return… just as he was grabbed by a Griffon. It seemed to happen in slow motion to everyone. Jaune's eyes widened as he felt its talons settle on his shoulders, and before he could cry out, he was being borne away from the bullhead, back into the Deathlands.

"JAUNE!" Everybody screamed as they heard him yelling in panic. Ruby drew Crescent Rose without a thought and sighted on the Griffon, firing as quickly as she could now that the bullhead had stabilized, speeding them away from the Deathlands. She was joined by Pyrrha, who was desperately firing at the more and more distant Grimm. Finally, one of Ruby's shots hit the Griffon in the side of the head, blowing it clean off as the round exploded due to the fire dust in it. They could vaguely hear Jaune yell as he fell from the Grimm's slack talons down to the ground below.

Ren launched himself at the intercom. "You need to turn around now!" He quite uncharacteristically shouted.

"Are you nuts, kid? We're barely staying in the air as it is! We go back, we're dead!" The pilot responded.

"One of our number just fell deep into the Deathlands! If we don't get him back now, we probably never will!" Ren yelled angrily.

"Kid, you don't get it, if I go back, this bird drops and we all die in that hell. I'm sorry about your friend, but it's one or all! I know my duty." The pilot said grimly.

Ren slammed his fist against the wall and turned back to the others even as the door outside closed, the Grimm for the most part giving up pursuit, the remainder being dealt with by the bullhead's small caliber weapons.

Yang was holding a sobbing Ruby while Weiss sat nearby, looking shellshocked. Pyrrha was even worse. She had tears going down her face and her hands were fisted at her sides, trembling. Ren knew she was barely holding herself back from rushing the cockpit and forcing the pilot to turn around by force. Blake was sitting where she had been reading before, her head in her hands. And Nora was hugging herself, whimpering. He quickly made his way to her and wrapped his arms around her form, feeling her lean into his touch almost desperately. Ren himself could feel tears prickling the corners of his eyes.

The rest of the trip back to Beacon was spent in silence.

* * *

Jaune groaned as he opened his eyes. He lay on the cool ground, trying to figure out what happened. Last thing he remembered was… His eyes snapped open and he bolted upright, looking around. He was being carried by a Griffon when it had its head blown off and he dropped into the, he gulped, Deathlands. He got up and looked around frantically, terrified something was going to pounce at him immediately.

He knew that there was probably no help coming any time soon. If the pilot was smart he was going to keep flying back to Beacon rather than turn back to him. And it was doubtful anybody would be sent to search for him. If he wanted to survive, he had to get out himself.

He pulled out his scroll, hoping it would still work so he could at least let somebody know he was still alive, but his heart plummeted. It was cracked in two, completely useless.

"Dammit, that means I don't even get any music…" He said to himself, annoyed. Then he almost slapped himself. Listening to music when he should be paying attention to his surroundings sounded like the dumbest thing he could do.

He sighed, made sure Crocea Mors was still on his waist and in good condition, before looking up. He considered the position of the sun before choosing a direction and slowly, carefully, making his way. Hopefully he wasn't too far from the edge of the Deathlands.

How long could it take for him to get out, anyway?

* * *

 ** _Hello and welcome to my new story. This one will get updated less often than my Harry Potter story, to say nothing of my DxD story, but it will eventually get an update. The chapters will probably be relatively short, but we'll see._**

 ** _I realize the beginning has some similarities to said Harry Potter story, but it's different long term. This is going to be about Jaune trying to survive an environment even more hostile than Remnant usually is and, later on, how the effect of his experiences changes things. It was an interesting idea, so I figured I'd give it a try._**

 ** _I was thinking of letting Jaune find something from another fairytail in the Deathlands he could use later, but haven't decided. Let me know what you think in a review._**

 ** _Also, don't know what the pairing will be. Pyrrha will most likely be involved, but if it's just her or a harem, I don't know._**

 ** _Don't think there's much else to say at this point. Hope you enjoyed, and please read and review._**


	2. Welcome to the Jungle

As the bullhead touched down RWBY and NPR rushed out, desperate to get their friend help before it was too late. Thankfully they spotted Ozpin, Goodwitch and, surprisingly, Ironwood standing nearby, obviously waiting for them.

"Students, we heard you had trouble during your return." Goodwitch said before looking over them. "Where is Mr Arc?"

Ruby barely kept herself from bursting into tears as she answered. "Professor, Jaune fell into the Deathlands while we were fighting off a horde of flying Grimm. Please, you need to send somebody to look for him now!"

All three teachers' eyes sharpened at this news. "Glynda, please get the flight information from the pilot so we know where this occurred." Ozpin said firmly, Goodwitch immediately hurrying to do so. Then he turned to Ruby. "Now, Miss Rose, please, tell us exactly what happened." Ozpin listened intently as Ruby gave her report, with the others occasionally chiming in with further details. When they were done he nodded. "I see. Rest assured, we are going to do everything in our power to recover Mister Arc. I myself will lead the efforts to get him back."

"Professor, can we help? We can join whoever you send out to look for him." Pyrrha pleaded.

It was Ironwood who answered as Goodwitch returned. "While we appreciate your desire to recover your leader, Miss Nikos, the fact is that the Deathlands are too dangerous for you. If anybody is sent in, they need to be able to focus on their job of recovering Mister Arc, and not on protecting you. Yes, you are talented, but you're still inexperienced, and that would be deadly in that environment. The best you can do for the time being is stay here."

The students looked mutinous at that, but relented and left when Ozpin told them to. Then the headmaster turned to his deputy. "What could the pilot tell you?"

"I have no idea how he made his way so far into the Deathlands, Ozpin. I'd say an inquiry needs to be made, because they made it at least a hundred miles in before correcting their course on Mister Arc's orders. And that's not counting the fact that he was carried off by a Grimm even deeper. I'll work on it and narrow down a likely landing area., but as it is there is no way that young man is getting out on his own. Somebody needs to be sent in, and quickly. Every second that passes reduces the odds of us finding him intact dramatically."

Ironwood spoke up. "I'm willing to send some mechs to help, Ozpin, but I can't go much further. You know the Council's official policy. Anybody that winds up in the Deathlands is officially on their own and no further attempt is to be made at rescue lest more be lost."

Ozpin looked uncharacteristically angry at that. "I don't give a damn. One of my more promising students has landed himself in hell, and it's our duty as his teachers to get him out. I dare say Peter at least will be up for trying to find the young man. He always said he wanted to try his hand at the Deathlands."

"It'll be dark soon, plus searches won't be able to last overnight." Goodwitch said, frowning heavily as well. "It's simply far too dangerous. As much as I don't like it, they will only be able to be out in the field during daylight hours, which will heavily limit our chances of locating him, especially if he's on the move."

Ozpin nodded. "Very well. Glynda, figure out the initial search area while I look for Peter and any other potential volunteers to send out. James, get your mechs ready as well. Every little bit counts. Let's move quickly. Mister Arc is counting on us." The other two nodded and hurriedly got to work.

* * *

Jaune was carefully making his way through the trees of the forest, listening carefully for any hint of sound from Grimm. He was unbearably tense, his muscles aching from being tight for so long. But he was finding it very hard to relax.

He found it amazing that he hadn't been attacked by anything yet. There was no way his luck was this good. He'd be getting ripped apart any moment now.

Now that a little time had passed, his shock at the circumstances he found himself in was ebbing away, giving way to panic and terror, which he was trying desperately to stamp down. Such feelings would only make things worse, leading the monsters of the forest straight to him. So he tried to remember things that made him happy, such as his family and his friends. But thinking about those only brought about a feeling of despair at the fact that he likely wouldn't see them again.

"Why is it always me that the universe shits on? Did I do something horrible in a past life, like destroy some towns, burn down some orphanages, kick some puppies?" His self-pitying mutterings stopped abruptly as he heard a growl nearby. He whirled around, clumsily drawing Crocea Mors as he stared in the direction the growl had come from.

Out of the trees came a large beowolf. A large beowolf covered in bone plate. A large beowolf covered in bone plate and bristling with bone spikes all over its body.

"An Alpha. Of course it's an Alpha. Fuck you too, universe." Jaune muttered despondently.

The beowolf roared as it launched itself at Jaune, who desperately brought his shield up to bock the monster's charge. It impacted heavily against the heater shield, sending Jaune flying back with a cry. He desperately swung his sword once he, surprisingly, landed on his feet, the blade skittering off the beowolf's bone armor. It growled and swung one of its large arms, slamming into Jaune's chest. It thankfully hit his armor even as it once again sent him flying against a tree, but Jaune could tell that he was already down a substantial amount of aura, even with his large reserves.

Jaune desperately tried to think of a way out of this. He may die in this Oum-forsaken forest, but there was no way it was going to be to the first damned Grimm he saw! He was not letting Pyrrha's training go to waste like that!

Coming up with an, admittedly simple, plan, Jaune moved in front of a large stone and held his shield up, waiting for the beowolf to attack again. The Grimm snarled as it glared at the wannabe Huntsman before pouncing on him again. Rather than try to tank the attack once more, Jaune sprang to the side in a roll, immediately twirling on the spot. As the Grimm hit the stone, actually moving it slightly due to the force, Jaune launched himself into a thrust with a yell, putting all of his weight behind his sword and aiming for one of the few patches of black on its back.

Thankfully, his aim was true and the blade sank halfway into the monster's flesh. Unfortunately, the Grimm whirled around with a howl of pain, batting Jaune away, making him lose his grip on Crocea Mors.

Jaun groaned in pain where he landed for a moment before looking up at his enemy, wondering why he hadn't been cut to ribbons yet. He was gratified to see that it was preoccupied trying to get the sharp piece of metal out of its flesh rather than continue attacking him.

He quickly got up, trying to think of what to do now. He looked at his shield before sighing and charging at the distracted beowolf with a cry, shield held in front. He bashed the Grimm's head, making it snap to the side. Then he tried to strike its neck with the edge of the shield. It worked, slightly, digging about half an inch into the exposed flesh, making it snarl.

Jaune quickly moved away before the beowolf could hit him again, which would most likely bring his aura to zero at this point. Then he shifted his shield into its sheath mode and held that like a blunt blade. The Grimm advanced, ignoring the sword still stuck in its flesh for the moment. Jaune ducked a swing by the beowolf and swung with his blunt weapon, smacking its arm further away. The he tried to get to his sword, but his opponent moved away at the last moment, not letting him reach it, and swung again. Jaune quickly extended his shield again, tanking the hit much better than before, managing to keep on his feet.

He then slammed against the beowolf once again, driving it towards the rock he'd tricked it with before. The thing yelped as this forced Crocea Mors to move inside it, damaging it even more. It snarled, but Jaune moved back before once more slamming it against the rock, doing even more damage. The beast flailed about, but one final, desperate slam forced the sword the rest of the way in, and the beowolf went limp, already turning to smoke.

Jaune, panting, fell on his ass, panting in exhaustion and from the adrenaline. Then, slowly, he began to laugh euphorically. He'd done it. He'd won! "Take that, Cardin! I just beat an Alpha Beowolf in the fucking Deathlands. You can fucking bite me!"

Slowly his laughter abated and he groaned, tired as he came down from the adrenaline high. But he wasn't stupid, so he picked up Crocea Mors and got ready to move again. Just because he beat one Grimm didn't mean he was safe, after all.

He looked up at the sky that was visible through the branches of the trees. It was starting to get dark, and there was no way he'd make any progress in the night without getting himself horrible killed. His best option was to start looking for someplace to spend the light.

He made his way through the forest, hopefully looking for shelter.

* * *

Ozpin stood once again on the landing pad for the school bullheads. Night had fallen, and he'd received news that the search party was returning. He knew it was beyond optimistic to hope for news when they'd only been out for a couple of hours at most, but he needed to hear it for himself.

The bullhead holding the search party landed as Goodwitch made her way to his side. She looked a bit drawn. She was often one of the harshest teachers on Jaune, but he knew that's because she cared to make sure he survived. Knowing that one of her students was in hell on earth must be wearing on her.

The door of the bullhead opened and Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck stepped out. Ozpin had been gratified that most of the staff had volunteered to help, but at least for the moment he had just sent the two, plus Ironwood's mechs as backup.

"Any news, gentlemen?" Ozpin asked, voice calm.

Port shook his head. "No. We didn't have much time to look. And no offence to Glynda, but the initial search area is large. We don't know exactly where he landed. It didn't help that the bullhead was harassed by Grimm annoyingly often." He stroked his impressive mustache. "We did fight some rather rare Grimm. The land's reputation is well earned, as far as I could tell." Realizing how his words sounded he continued on boisterously. "But Mister Arc has a good head on his shoulders. He'll be fine till we can find him, I'm sure."

Ozpin turned to Oobleck, who had been uncharacteristically silent. "What do you think, Bartholomew?"

Oobleck started. He'd obviously been lost in thought. "Ah? Well, Peter is right. As long as Mister Arc keeps a cool head he should be able to hopefully at least avoid confrontation. Still, we need to find him quickly."

"What is it?" Goodwitch asked as she saw the look on Oobleck's face.

"I spotted what appeared to be ruins in the area we flew over. I hadn't heard anything of any settlements there before, no matter the history, so I'm puzzled. I'll need to consult my books." Oobleck replied.

"You think they could affect Mister Arc's odds?" Ozpin asked.

Oobleck shrugged. "I don't know. Doubtful. Still, don't worry, I won't let my academic curiosity get in the way of finding our wayward student."

Ozpin nodded. "Well then, let's get inside. We'll be sending somebody out to search as soon as the sun rises." The others followed him back into the school, each hoping Jaune was okay.

* * *

Jaune was sitting on the large, high branch of a large tree. Unable to find a cave or something similar to hide out in, he figured his best chance was to get high up, away from any Grimm roaming the ground.

He was trying to relax, though he was finding it incredibly hard. Every noise made him twitch. The only light came from the moon, which gave everything an otherworldly feel.

He sighed softly and leaned against the tree trunk, trying to get comfortable. In the middle of his shifting his stomach growled loudly, making him freeze, fearing something would be attracted to the sound and devour him. After a minute of nothing happening he managed to relax again, holding his stomach.

He thought wistfully of the pack he'd left behind on the bullhead, which was full of supplies, including rations. Thankfully he'd managed to slake his thirst at a small stream he'd encountered, so that was one less problem. Though he wished he had his canteen so he could carry some water with him.

He closed his eyes. He doubted he'd be able to sleep, but he needed to rest as much as possible and save his strength. He was just managing to fall into a light doze when his eyes snapped open at the sound of rustling. He gazed down at the ground beneath his tree, holding his breath.

Below him something very large was moving past the tree. It made a skittering noise as it traveled, and Jaune realized it was due to a huge number of blade-like legs hitting the ground. He watched with bated breath as a huge Grimm centipede, as long as a couple of train cars and heavily armored, moved past.

He didn't dare breathe for a while after it finally disappeared deeper into the forest, simply staying stock still. Finally he slumped, a cold sweat covering him, and almost whimpered.

He wanted to get out of this horrible forest, and he wanted out now.

* * *

 ** _Hello all, and welcome to the newest chapter of Survival._**

 ** _Poor Jaune. It's only going to get worse. But if he survives he's going to have bragging rights for life._**

 ** _Not much happened in this chapter. I decided to start it slow, though as shown by Jaune's close encounter there are plenty of nasties around. He's just gotten lucky so far._**

 ** _As I stated in my latest Dragon chapter, this was always going to be short. This fic is essentially what I do on the side when I've got time between chapters of Dragon and Brightest._**

 ** _Hope it's good anyway though._**

 ** _So everyone is aware, my update schedule is going to change, as my work schedule is changing. Before I posted chapters on the weekend, as I worked Tues-Sat and I write at work when I have nothing else to do. Now my schedule is changing to Fri-Tues, so I'll most likely be posting new chapters of my stuff during midweek. So expect a new chapter of Dragon in a little over a week._**

 ** _Don't really have much else to say… Oh, thought I'd give this fic an official theme song. It's going to be 'I May Fall' from the RWBY Volume 1 Soundtrack. It seemed appropriate._**

 ** _Till next time, thanks for reading, and please review._**


	3. Survivalism for Dummies

Pyrrha gazed blankly at her breakfast bagels the morning after the ill-fated bullhead trip. She wasn't the only one, as the rest of her team plus team RWBY were extremely subdued. Nora wasn't even inhaling her pancakes like usual, just nibbling on them.

Pyrrha had cried herself to sleep the previous night, and now felt more drained than she would have previously believed. The sight of Jaune's shocked face as the griffon took him away appeared to her every time she closed her eyes. She'd been completely helpless then, and that same feeling continued to haunt her. She glanced around at her friends, trying to think of anything else other than that horrible feeling of uselessness.

Ruby was twirling a strawberry absently, staring blankly. Her eyes were rimmed in red and bloodshot, and Pyrrha had no doubt that the young reaper had been crying just as much as she had. Ruby and Jaune were very close, being the first friend either had made at Beacon, and fellow team leaders. It was not surprising in the least that the girl had been heavily affected.

Yang wasn't as boisterous as she usually was. Usually when they were having breakfast she'd be grinning and cracking horrible puns to the groans of her audience. Now she just ate her cereal slowly while keeping close to her sister, obviously trying to offer her support. Pyrrha was just glad Yang hadn't decided to try to lift everybody's spirits with her usual antics. She wasn't sure how she'd have dealt with that, but she imagined it would be badly.

Blake was trying to distract herself by reading a book, having already finished her own food. However, Pyrrha could see that the faunus had stopped reading entirely, just staring down at the page, eyes not moving to take in the words. She looked drawn, showing that despite being the one that interacted with Jaune the least, the events of the previous day were still affecting her.

Weiss was paler than usual and looked exhausted. An almost palpable aura of guilt covered her like a cloak. The fact that Jaune had been taken because he'd saved her and Ruby was apparently weighing heavily on her mind, and it was clear she wasn't dealing with the feelings very well.

Ren looked stoic as ever, but his shoulders were slumped, and he sipped his morning tea slowly and ponderingly. The loss of the man he'd begun to consider like a brother had affected him so that he seemed to have even less energy than usual.

Nora, as stated before, was half-heartedly nibbling on her pancakes. She looked tired, obviously not having slept much. Pyrrha remembered that the Valkyrie had curled up with Ren on his bed rather than her own during the night, obviously seeking comfort. She didn't remember much due to her own tears, but she was sure Nora had cried into Ren's shoulder for at least a while.

Pyrrha and a couple of the others looked up when Sun and Neptune approached, the monkey faunus stretching with a small grin. "Ah, nice to relax, isn't it? I mean, it's a bummer they pushed back the Vytal Tournament to deal with the aftermath of the Breach, but I don't mind sticking around Beacon for a month or two longer." When nobody answered he quirked an eyebrow. "Hey, what's with you guys?" He looked around. "And where's Jaune, anyway? He said he was going to lend me a couple of issues of X-Ray and Vav."

Ruby's face crumpled, and Yang hastily wrapped an arm around her. Weiss hung her head, blinking tears out of her eyes. Nora dropped the piece of pancake she was nibbling on and pushed her plate away, looking anguished. Ren set his tea down, though his hands were shaking slightly. And Pyrrha buried her face in her hands, trying to keep the tears that wanted to burst out at bay.

It was Blake, the calmest among them, who answered the question. "Yesterday there was an ambush by Grimm on the way home from our mission. Jaune…" She let out a deep breath. "Jaune was pulled out of the bullhead by a griffon and… and dropped into the Deathlands. We couldn't go back for him. So he's still in there."

Sun and Neptune stared, shocked, as did several other students who had been close enough to hear her. "W-what? The Deathlands? But… But that's…" Neptune seemed at a loss for words as Sun was struck silent.

Before the conversation could continue Goodwitch's voice came from the entrance of the cafeteria. "Students, your attention please!" Everybody turned to find her and Ozpin standing there. For once, the headmaster didn't have his customary mug of coffee in hand, which made everybody look at him intently.

"Thank you." Ozpin said. "I wanted to inform you of an incident that occurred yesterday before any rumors pop up as they are want to do." He took a breath before continuing. "On their way back from a mission, teams RWBY and JNPR were attacked by a large force of airborne Grimm. Normally this would not be an issue, however they were forced to fly over the area known as the Deathlands during evasion." The students began to whisper to each other but Ozpin continued unperturbed. "During the fighting a couple of students almost fell out of the bullhead and into the forests below. Fortunately, they were saved by Jaune Arc. Mr. Arc managed to pull them back into the aircraft safely. Unfortunately, this left Mr. Arc in a position which enabled a griffon to grab hold of him and take him away. It was brought down, but this meant that Mr. Arc fell into the Deathlands, and it was unsafe for the bullhead to turn back for him." There were gasps at this, the students staring at Ozpin in horror. More than one turned to Jaune's friends, who were all looking dejected. "However, I assure you that we are working hard to recover Mr. Arc. As we speak, a team of Beacon faculty have headed into the area we believe he landed in to search for him. So rest easy that we are doing everything possible to bring him home. That is all." With that Ozpin turned and left the hall, Goodwitch following behind him.

There was an explosion of talking as they left, everybody wanting to share opinions on what they just found out. The general consensus seemed to be that Jaune was a goner, and the teachers were only going to bring back his remains, if they brought anything back at all.

Pyrrha clenched her fists. Everybody was ready to give up on Jaune, and the worst part was that she could understand why. Fully trained, high level huntsmen died quickly in the Deathlands, and Jaune was known to be good tactically, but not the greatest physically. The odds of Jaune still being alive even now were small.

Team CFVY made their way over. "Hey guys." Velvet said, giving Ruby a hug, which the younger girl eagerly returned.

"We're sorry to hear about Jaune." Coco said.

"He's not dead!" Nora said fiercely, glaring at the fashion conscious girl.

Coco lowered her shades to look at Nora. "Never said he was. That doesn't mean this isn't rough on you or him."

Yatsuhashi was the next to speak. "Jaune has a surprisingly strong will. I am sure he will manage to survive till he's rescued. We just need to believe in his strength and look forward to the moment he returns."

Pyrrha looked down at her clenched fists. "I'm trying. But when I think of what he could be going through…" She let a tear escape from her eye.

Sun moved close and patted her back. "Hey, like the big guy said said, don't worry about it. That guy's way too stubborn to die. He'll be back. You'll see."

"Makes me wonder what he's up to now." Yang said musingly.

* * *

Jaune woke up from an extremely restless sleep, thankfully still on the branch he'd claimed and not being eaten by a monster. He stretched with a soft groan even as his stomach rumbled loudly.

"Ugh, I really need to find something to eat. Wonder if there are any berries nearby." He froze when he heard something moving below him at the base of the tree.

Slowly, carefully, he peered over, expecting some horrible monstrosity with too many teeth and swords for arms, only to find… a boar. He blinked. It wasn't a boarbatusk, but a regular boar. He sighed in relief as he watched it rummage around the tree for something to eat. For some reason the idea that there were regular animals and not just Grimm in this area hadn't entered his mind. It was reassuring to know it wasn't just him alone with the monsters.

His stomach growled again, demanding sustenance. He patted it irritably. "Okay, and what am I supposed to… feed… you…" He looked down at the boar again thoughtfully.

He'd never hunted before. He'd never cleaned a kill or cooked his own food over a fire. But he was hungry enough to learn.

"Alright, piggy. Sorry, but it's you or me." He prepared himself to pounce, Crocea Mors in his hand, and once he was certain of where he'd land he dropped from his branch, sword positioned to hit his target.

It went better than he could have hoped. His blade caught the boar in the back of the neck, severing its spine and almost beheading it despite its thick hide thanks to his momentum. The animal didn't even have time to let out a squeal before it was dead, which was for the best, as far as Jaune was concerned. Less of a chance of something being attracted to the noise.

What he hadn't prepared himself for was the blood. He was used to fighting Grimm, which didn't bleed. This was quite different. Hesitantly he picked the dead boar up, holding it away without thinking to keep from getting any blood on himself.

"Okay Jaune, now what?" He asked himself. He thought for a moment before sighing. He'd need to head back to the stream he'd passed the previous evening, both to get something to drink but also to help himself clean his kill. At least, he thought being near water would help. He wasn't really sure. Still, he carried his kill towards the stream, feeling thirsty now.

A short while later he'd washed his hands and had a drink before turning towards the boar, trying to figure out what to do now. His only cutting implement was his sword, so that's what he'd need to use. He found himself wishing he had a proper hunting knife, which would probably work better. He made a mental note to get himself one when he got back to civilization.

He quickly took his armor and shirt off to keep them from getting dirty before getting to work. Drawing Crocea he stuck the tip into the boar's hide and started trying to cut it. It was difficult, but he slowly made progress.

Slowly but surely he managed to puzzle out how to clean his kill. The moment he had to remove the organs he had to move and vomit into the river, but he managed to get it done. He then cleared one of the large stones by the river and started cutting the meat off the boar and setting it aside. By the time he was done he was bloody and sweaty, and the boar's carcass had been turned into a bunch of amateurishly cut pieces of meat.

"Whew, finally. Now I need to cook this…" He looked around for stones and sticks he could use to start a fire. Thankfully he'd gone camping with his family before, so he knew the setup. Thinking of happier times he got to work.

He looked on in satisfaction once he had a campfire set up. Now he just needed to light it. "…Aww hell…" His face fell. He didn't have a lighter. He bit his lip, but started working on the old rubbing sticks trick.

It took him far, far too long for his liking, but he finally got a fire going what felt like an hour later. Not that he could tell, since his scroll was smashed and he didn't wear a watch. Another thing he'd have to correct when he got back, he thought to himself.

Still, now that the fire had been started he could start cooking. As he was setting the meat to cook on some skewers he'd whittled he had a sudden thought. He hadn't run into anything yet today besides the boar. No other animals and, thank everything holy, no Grimm. True, the day was young and it wouldn't last, but he still found it odd. He was under the impression the place was crawling with monsters.

What Jaune didn't realize was that the Deathlands, while one of the most dangerous places on Remnant, also had areas with differing populations, just like any other location. He'd been lucky to land in an area that was sparsely populated by Grimm, at least in comparison to the rest of the region. As he moved, however, he would pass through more populated areas, where he'd be lucky to go twenty feet before encountering something.

For now, however, he was unaware of any of this and was simply enjoying the peace and quiet as long as it would last.

By the time the first bit of meat was ready Jaune's stomach was roaring with hunger. Having cleaned himself up while he was waiting, bored, he eagerly set upon the meal.

It was rather bland, since he hadn't had any spices to use, but he was far too hungry to care and eagerly ate it all, followed by several more pieces. By the time he was satisfied half the meat was gone, and he was leaning back, patting his stomach. "Finally…"

This left him with a predicament, however. What to do with the rest of the meat? He couldn't just leave it behind. He didn't know when he'd next find food, and it would be best if he carried some around with him for later.

He looked around for something to carry the meat in before spotting his clothes. He considered them before grabbing the shirt he wore under his hoodie. Nodding to himself he tied the end to turn it into a makeshift bag and placed the meat inside. Then he put his hoodie and armor on before walking back the way he came, wanting to keep going.

He fervently hoped he was going in the right direction to get out of this deathtrap.

Several hours later the sun was a bit past noon and Jaune was panting. He'd run into an Ursa Major not long before, and the fight had worn on for twenty minutes as Jaune did his best to keep away from its devastating swipes while trying to take it out. He'd only managed to kill it by luck, as he'd forced the tip of his sword up through its jaw and up into its brain as it tried to lunge at him.

He looked up to find out that he'd reached a cliff. A bit further away he could see a waterfall dropping over the edge. He looked around for a way to get down. He spotted several large trees rising from below nearby he made his way towards them, using them to make his way to the bottom without injuring himself.

He sighed in relief when he made it down and turned to continue on his way before spotting something on another tree. He made his way toward it before seeing that he was correct. What he had originally taken to be an uncommonly straight little branch was actually an arrow.

He tugged it out of the wood and studied it. It was made of some composite material that had obviously endured the weather well for however it had been out. The metal arrowhead was still in surprisingly good condition, with only the slightest bit of rust on it. He wondered where it came from. Obviously from one of the 'visitors' to the Deathlands, but who? And where were they?

He placed the arrow back where it was to find out where it was shot from and saw that it pointed to the base of the waterfall. Curious, as there didn't seem to be any place for someone to shoot from there, he made his way towards it, wanting to see if he could find anything else.

It took him a bit of looking before he realized that there was a small cave hidden behind the waterfall. Remembering the last time he entered a cave he drew Crocea Mors and made his way around the water as best he could and into the cave before grimacing at what he found.

The body of what Jaune could only assume to be a Huntsman lay in the back of the cave. He'd been there long enough that only bones remained, but not so long that his gear had decayed with him. Indeed, some of his stuff looked pristine.

Jaune hesitated before looking at the body apologetically. "Sorry, but, well, I need it more than you do." Felling like a thief he began to go through the stuff in front of him, seeing if there was anything he could use.

The first and most obvious thing to him was the leather pack at the skeleton's side. If nothing else, he could use that to carry any supplies, including food. It would do much better than his shirt, that was for sure.

He opened the bag to find some rations that had gone bad, so he threw them to the side. A change of clothes that, from the look of the remains wouldn't fit him, but which he kept to use as makeshift bandages and/or kindling. A couple of medical supplies such as a roll of bandages, a box of band-aids, some pain relief medicine and some disinfectant. All things he would keep. To his delight there was a lighter with some small vials of fire dust for it. That would save him a lot of time. Finally there was a canteen he was happy to find, as now he could carry water with him rather than hope he'd find a stream. That appeared to be it, though he wasn't complaining. All those things would come in handy.

Then Jaune turned to the body itself. He gently pulled a well-made composite bow from the skeleton's hands and looked it over. It didn't seem to be capable of mechashifting, but he didn't care. He felt he couldn't have made a better find when it came to ranged weaponry.

One of his sisters had taken up the bow and had taught him when he was younger. He was decently proficient in it, and he'd considered getting one when he went to Beacon. However in the end he decided to stick to Crocea.

Now, however, it would be a big help, as it could help him hunt better than his sword could. Not to mention that having a ranged option was always a good idea, as his friends had shown him more than once.

He turned back to the body. "Thanks. I promise to put it to good use. And when I get out, I'll see if I can find your family and give it to them, so they have something of yours." He proceeded to remove a large quiver thankfully bristling with arrows from the body to strap to his own and, noticing it strapped to a boot, a knife that he figured he could use for his hunting, at the least.

The last thing he checked for was a scroll. If he could call for evac that would work better than making his own way out alone. He was happy when he found one, but frowned when he realized it was out of power and he had no way to charge it. Sighing he set it back where he found it. "Well, it couldn't all go my way. Thanks for the help anyway. I owe you big." He raised a hand in farewell to the unknown Huntsman. "See you on the other side, but hopefully not too soon." Shouldering the pack after stuffing his meat filled shirt into it and picking up the bow, he made his way back out of the cave.

He squinted slightly once he was back out in the sunshine before looking at the way he had been going before. Seeing nothing around he settled the pack more comfortably on his shoulders before nocking an arrow, ready to draw. He let out a breath. "Alright Arc, you're better off than you were before. Now get out of this place and back to Beacon. You've got a tournament to prepare for." Having psyched himself up he proceeded to make his way, searching for a way out, ready for anything.

Well, almost anything.

* * *

 ** _Finally, new chapter of this fic. Got it done quick, too. Took me about five and a half hours. It is short of course, but I'd already said most of the chapters of this fic would be. I hope it was good anyway._**

 ** _I know not much happened in this chapter. It was mostly setup. I needed to show Jaune begin to adapt, and him getting those supplies is something important, especially the bow. He needed something he could use other than Crocea, and I debated between that and a revolver. In the end I decided that a bow wasn't something I remembered seeing in the series besides from Cinder, and the idea of Jaune using the type of weapon she used to kill Pyrrha to fight her appealed to me._**

 ** _I'm still debating on what Jaune will get as he travels through the Deathlands. I was thinking a mythical piece of armor to go with his Semblance, which I've mostly decided on, just not all the details. He might come across the remains of other poor souls who died in the area that could give him things he needs too. I'll try not to make it happen too often though._**

 ** _I'm sure some people are annoyed that there were no fights in this chapter besides an offscreen one. There are two reasons for this. One, I can't show every fight Jaune gets into in the Deathlands. That's just not feasible. So some will be alluded to if they aren't important in some way. Secondly, well, I've said it before, I'm not good at action. Character interaction/development is what I'm best at. It is very, very hard for me to make a halfway decent fight, though I do try. I think it shows in my work._**

 ** _Speaking of character interaction, I hope the scene in Beacon went well. Showing what's happening there will be a regular thing. Maybe not every chapter, but most of them. Jaune's 'loss' is going to obviously affect them, and I want to show that. That way his return will be even better._**

 ** _Still undecided on the pairing, though I'm sorry to tell the Arkos haters that it will very likely be included. I'd say 99%. Sorry, my fic, my choice._**

 ** _Next, I'm going to see about posting the first chapter of my Chrono Trigger idea, if only to get it out of my head. That will most likely be on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. If you're interested in the series, give it a look when it comes out. It's just a novelization with a few changes to canon, but I'm still looking forward to doing it._**

 ** _Anyway, till next time, I'm off. Please review._**


	4. Balls, And Other Dangerous Objects

Jaune stopped in a clearing after some time walking, deciding to try out his new weapon. He needed to make sure he was not too out of practice, and that the bow was still working alright. Normal bows wouldn't be in great shape after so long out in the open, especially not the bowstrings. Thankfully, the weapons wielded by Huntsmen and Huntresses tended to be more robust, made of better materials and with advanced techniques.

Assuming whoever the original owner was hadn't cheaped out, of course.

He set his newly acquired bag down to the side and readied the bow, nocking and drawing an arrow. He was gratified to note that the bowstring didn't seem to have any problems as he drew it back. The action itself, however, was not as smooth as he would have liked. He really was out of practice. He'd need to take some time to correct that. It could be the difference between life and death.

Once he was ready he let the arrow fly at the trunk of a sturdy looking tree. It hit with a satisfying impact, but Jaune still frowned. He'd hit the edge of the tree, about five inches from where he'd been aiming. Not as bad as he'd feared, but not great either. He drew another arrow and repeated the action, this time hitting a bit closer than before. He sighed but squared his shoulders. Time to do some training.

Jaune spent nearly an hour firing arrows at his chosen tree, getting used to using a bow again. Blundering around with a weapon he wasn't sure he could use correctly didn't seem like the best idea after all. He already had enough problems when it came to Crocea Mors.

He'd just taken a sip of water from his canteen during a break when he heard something. It was the sound of something moving through the brush. Slowly, he set the canteen down and picked the bow back up, looking around warily as he nocked an arrow. The sound of movement was promptly joined by a low growl, and he drew and aimed at where it was coming from.

From out of bushes walked a Grimm Jaune had never seen before, either in person or in Port's class. It was a squat thing, moving low to the ground. It was built heavily, about as wide as it was tall, reaching his chest. But he didn't fool himself into thinking the girth was cumbersome fat. Grimm were rarely so accommodating.

Its legs were double joined oddly, making its movements seem clumsy, but if he had to guess they probably let it jump prodigiously. It had short, stubby arms with foot long claws at the ends. Its mask was large, covering its wide face, and it had fangs protruding from its upper lip which reached its lower jaw. And though he couldn't see its back, he could spot what appeared to be large spikes extending from it, indicating bone armor, which made a back attack… troublesome.

The two stared at each other for several seconds before the monster let out an odd screeching roar and jumped at him. He was disappointed to find he was right. It could jump well. It was actually falling towards him, claws outstretched to rip him to shreds. Jaune quickly aimed up and let his arrow fly before quickly scrambling away from his position. He could practically feel the air as the thing swiped at him, barely missing even as it let out a screech of pain.

He turned his head to see it, finding it wrenching the arrow from its shoulder and tossing it aside. Jaune turned and somewhat shakily drew another arrow before aiming and letting it fly as quickly as possible. The Grimm jumped over the projectile, making him miss entirely, once again aiming to land on him. This time, rather than run, he dropped the bow and drew Crocea, extending the shield to catch it as it fell.

The Grimm was caught by surprise as Jaune forced it back with a grunt, making it land awkwardly. He quickly took the opportunity to thrust forward with his sword, aiming for its chest.

Sadly, the Grimm didn't feel like dying just yet, and it sprang back just in time, barely avoiding the tip of his sword.

"Alright Bouncy Ball, what are you going to do now?" Jaune muttered, eyes narrowed. He considered grabbing his bow and using it while it was away from him, but discarded the idea. This wasn't The Legend of Hilda, where the boss was weak to the weapon the player just got. The bow was situational, and this wasn't the situation for it.

Bouncy Ball let out another growl, its claws moving as it glared at him. Then Jaune decided to take the initiative and charged with a cry, lunging forward sword first.

The Grimm screeched as it jumped over the running human, landing behind him, and whirling to attack his back. Jaune, however, turned his charge into a forward roll, evading it entirely, and sprang to his feet before whirling around in a clumsy but still serviceable slash. His opponent let out a piercing shriek as one of its arms was cut off, staggering back.

Jaune didn't let the opportunity pass him by and thrusted once again, finally managing to catch it in its throat. Bouncy Ball let out a gurgle as Jaune proceeded to slash out, cutting it open further. The Grimm fell back, thrashing, before going still and beginning to fade.

Jaune sighed in relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead after sheathing his blade. "Pyrrha is never hearing about that fight." He muttered to himself. She'd kept trying to get him to stop rushing forward all the time. She would not be pleased about what he'd done in this fight, despite his win.

He quickly proceeded to pick up his things, take a quick sip of water, and move back out. Staying in one place probably wasn't the best idea, especially after the noise caused by his fight.

* * *

NPR, RWBY, SN and CFVY were outside in one of the Academy's various open areas. SN and CFVY had decided that it would be best for their friends to get some air while they talked.

Pyrrha was sitting on the ground with her knees against her chest and her arms wrapped around them as the others talked softly. She didn't feel like participating, though she didn't want to be alone either, feeling that she'd break down again if she didn't have something to distract her.

The sun was warm against her skin, the sky blue and cloudless. Normally this would be a great day that she'd eagerly spend outdoors. But that was when she had Jaune around to spend the time with her, making it all better with his goofy antics. Now she couldn't help but hate the way the weather seemed to mock her.

She was so lost in her thoughts that it took her a moment to realize that her friends had gone quiet. She glanced at them, wondering what was going on, to find them all staring at something, most with flat, hard gazes. She turned to see what they were looking at, only for her eyes to narrow.

Cardin Winchester and his team, CRDL, were walking towards the group. Cardin, surprisingly, didn't have his usual smug look on his face. He simply stopped before them and looked at them all, appearing hesitant. "Uh… hey…"

"What do you want, Cardin?" Yang bit out, her lavender eyes narrowed as she stared at the bully.

The teen scratched the back of his head, appearing uncomfortable. "I, uh, just wanted to stop by and say that I'm, uh, sorry. About Jaune, I mean."

Something seemed to snap inside of Pyrrha. "You're sorry?"

Cardin practically squirmed where he was standing, and the rest of his team didn't look much better. "Uh, yeah."

Pyrrha gave a hollow, bitter laugh that was completely unlike her, making the others stare. "You bullied and tormented Jaune since we got to this school. You blackmailed him and practically made him a slave. But you're sorry?" She got to her feet, her entire body shaking with barely suppressed fury. "Even after all you did to him, he was still the better man and saved your worthless life when he could have just left you to die. And you never even thanked him. But now, when he might be dead, now you're sorry!?" Her voice had risen as she spoke, so that now everybody in the nearby area was paying attention, and CRDL looked distinctly uncomfortable. Pyrrha's gaze might as well have made Cardin combust. "If you truly want to apologize, Cardin, go out there and take his place. Otherwise, get the hell away from me." Cardin hesitated, briefly, and that was enough for the redhead. "GO AWAY!" She screamed, and Cardin backpedalled, practically running away.

Pyrrha stayed standing where she was, breathing heavily, angry tears at the corners of her eyes. Suddenly she felt arms around her and she turned to find Ruby hugging her. Pyrrha proceeded to sag and wrap her arms around the younger girl, still gritting her teeth in grief stricken fury.

* * *

The sun was setting, and Jaune knew he had to start looking for shelter before night fell completely. He kept an eye out for anything suitable as he walked with an arrow ready to be drawn at a moment's notice.

He'd encountered two more Grimm since the one he'd termed Bouncy Ball. One was an exceptionally large boarbatusk that he'd taken out with arrows, mainly to the eyes, as he avoided its spinning charges. The other was the mother of all creeps which had stood taller than him. Thankfully it had been just as stupid as normal creeps, so it wasn't as difficult to take out.

Jaune sighed softly as continued making his way through the forest. He was utterly sick of this place, and he knew that unless he was miraculously found, he'd be wandering through it for a while to come.

He suddenly stopped when he felt something different under his feet. He'd been walking on normal soil, but now it had suddenly shifted to stone. And not just a single, large stone. Stones in a pattern with spaces between them. He looked down to confirm. Yes, it looked like he was standing on an old style paved road.

"What the hell?" He stomped on the road, trying to dispel the apparent illusion, but no, the stones remained in place. They were obviously very weathered, to the point the barely fit together anymore, but it was beyond a doubt what he thought it was. "What the hell is a road doing out here? From what I'd heard of the Deathlands, it's been a deathtrap for as long as anybody can remember."

He started to wish his scroll was working. He had no doubt Professor (Doctor!) Oobleck would want photographic evidence of this. He shook his head and continued forward, following the road, hoping it didn't lead to a nest of deathstalkers or something equally as dangerous.

Before long he reached what appeared to be a stone building. It wasn't large. About the size of a small house. Thankful that the sun hadn't gone down too much, he made his way in, bow at the ready.

It was all a single, empty room. Whatever floor there was originally was now covered in dirt. Beyond that, there was nothing of note.

Now Jaune was really confused. Who the hell built such an obviously old structure? There should be nothing manmade in the entire damn area.

He frowned before shrugging. It didn't matter, at least not at the moment. What mattered was that he had found himself some shelter for the night. He set his bag to the side, sat down, and pulled out one of his remaining pieces of boar meat.

Grateful for his lucky break, he set himself in for the night as the sun set.

Hopefully tomorrow would go well too.

* * *

 ** _Greetings kids!_**

 ** _Short, I know, but this chapter did what it needed to, and I figured you'd waited long enough anyway._**

 ** _So, we start to get hints as to the greater mystery of the Deathlands. I never intended for it to be just 'Oh, this place is hell for no real reason, lol'. Salem has reasons for keeping that area under lockdown, and Jaune is going to discover some, but not all, of them._**

 ** _That's why I feel okay about giving Jaune something mystical to find. It fits with what I already have planned for the area._**

 ** _No big scenes in Beacon this time, but I felt what I showed was something that needed to happen. I'm not going to bash Cardin. There's no need to. He's already an asshole. :P_**

 ** _That said, he's a teenager, and teens are fucking stupid in many ways, bullies especially. Hopefully this is the start of him growing out of it. I don't know. I don't have any real plans for him besides this._**

 ** _A couple of people pointed out that Jaune should have brought the bowman's scroll with him so it could be used to identify his benefactor when he got back. Yeah, that was a stupid little plothole. Let's just say that Jaune was thinking primarily about what would help him in the moment, and so left it behind. By the time he realized he could have done so, it was too late, and he smacked himself in the head about it._**

 ** _Hope people found my custom Grimm interesting. I tried to come up with something different. Took some inspiration from the hunters from Resident Evil, except better at jumping._**

 ** _For those interested, two chapters of my Chrono Trigger fic are up. I'd appreciate any comments or feedback you can give me on it. It isn't a popular fandom, so reviews are few and far between. I treasure every one, though._**

 ** _I think that's all for this time. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and please review._**


	5. Chores

Goodwitch entered Ozpin's office in the morning with a pile of papers in her hands. Much as she disliked the distraction of it from current events, Jaune's circumstances didn't make the bureaucracy of running an academy like Beacon stop working.

As she walked in she found the headmaster sitting at his desk, eyes closed and sipping his coffee, already looking tired. "Ozpin, are you alright?" She asked as she set the papers down.

He opened his eyes and looked at her. "I just got off a call to Mr. Arc's family, informing them of the situation. They… did not take it well…"

Goodwitch's eyes softened. "Ah, I see." There really wasn't anything further to say to that. It was the headmaster's duty to give such news, which despite being rare did still need to occasionally be done. Beacon was a Huntsman Academy, after all. Fatalities were always a possibility. "Peter, Bartholomew and Peach have all left to continue searching." She sighed. "Though I'll admit, considering how long it's been and the kind of opposition the search teams have faced on the ground, my hopes are… dwindling."

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, gazing out the window. "…Nevertheless, we will continue. I refuse to give up till we absolutely have to. Mr. Arc will return to Beacon…" He closed his eyes and sighed. "One way or another…"

Goodwitch clenched her jaw slightly, but nodded. "…Of course."

No more was said, and the deputy turned and left the office, the clicking of her heels the only sound as Ozpin sat and thought.

* * *

Jaune was crouching as he moved carefully through the woods, bow drawn and arrow nocked. Not far from him was a deer, which was contentedly grazing, not aware of the potential danger.

He'd woken not that long ago after a fitful sleep where, once again, every single noise woke him, panicked. He couldn't help but imagine all the horrible things that would happily enter the old structure to eat him.

After sipping some water and eating one of the last couple of pieces of boar meat he had he'd moved out. He knew that he needed to find another water source, as well as something else to eat. He'd been lucky to find a berry bush, which he happened to know were edible thanks to camping with his family. He chuckled when he remembered his older sister throwing up due to eating the wrong berries, which lead him to checking on the net for any information, just in case. He was happy for his foresight now. He picked as many berries as he could, putting them in one of the pouches on his bag for later, savoring the taste of the couple he ate then and there.

It had been as he'd headed to the sound of what was most likely a small stream to fill up his canteen that he'd spotted the deer. He'd immediately ducked down and readied himself. If he could bag himself that deer, he could live off of the meat for a decent amount of time. Longer than the boar meat had lasted him, that was for sure.

Now he was getting as close as he dared, grateful that his armor wasn't overly large, cumbersome and noisy. If it was he'd have already spooked his prey. Once he determined he was close enough he took aim at the deer's head, hoping to put it down quickly and painlessly.

Alas, his aim was off. He hit the deer in the neck, making it start trying to run before dropping as it desperately tried to breathe through the hole in its throat. It thrashed, making horrible gasping, choking noises as it lay on its side.

Jaune stared in more than a bit of horror, when he was shaken out of it when it tried again to cry out. He drew Crocea Mors to put the poor animal out of its misery. "Sorry." He said, before raising his sword to do the deed.

Just as he was about to swing down he was suddenly tackled hard in the middle, sending him flying with a cry. He landed and rolled, looking up once he finished moving to find a boarbatusk snorting, getting ready to charge at him again.

Despite being in front of a rather large species of Grimm, he was relieved to find he wasn't staring at one of the higher tiered versions. This was a completely normal looking boarbatusk. He should be able to handle it.

He quickly got to his feet, extending his shield, ready for future charges. The Grimm snorted again, pawing the ground, before launching itself at Jaune once again. Jaune dodged to the side at the last moment like a bullfighter, lashing out with his sword, to less than stellar results. The blade skittered along the bone armor, not cutting into flesh.

He turned to face his opponent again as the boarbatusk did the same, squealing. Jaune quickly tried to think of how to take it out. His mind was taken back to the first day of class, when Weiss fought one in Port's class. Having an idea, somewhat simple as it was, he banged his sword against his shield. "Come on, piggy. Want some of this? Then come get it, you bacon sandwich reject."

The boarbatusk squealed angrily and curled up to perform its spinning attack. Jaune stood his ground as it accelerated towards him. He gathered his strength, ready for impact, not noticing a white glow appear on his shield. At the moment the Grimm impacted his shield he pushed back violently. He was surprised at the results, as with a small flash of white light the boarbatusk was slammed back, flying into the air squealing, landing on its back with a heavy thud.

Jaune was almost too stunned to take advantage of the situation, but as he saw it try to get back on its feet he rushed forward and thrust his blade into its belly, making it squeal again as he slashed it open, disemboweling it. It took a bit more effort than he expected, but before long it began to fade.

Jaune sighed in relief before looking down at his shield, puzzled. What the hell had just happened? He'd never had something like that happen before. Could it be replicated?

He was brought out of his thoughts when he remembered what he'd been doing before he was attacked. He turned back to where the deer lay to find it was no longer thrashing, finally dead. He sighed. He hadn't wanted it to die like that. It must have truly been horrible.

Determined to not let it happen again, he grabbed the deer by the legs and began to drag it towards the sound of water in order to clean and butcher his kill.

At least he'd be eating well.

* * *

Ruby lay in her bed, feeling it sway slightly on the ropes it was suspended on with her slight movements. She'd been lying in bed all day, not bothering to change out of her pajamas or go to breakfast with everybody else. She'd simply rested as she mulled over what a colossal failure she was.

No matter which direction her thoughts took, one thing she was sure of is that if she was a better leader she would have been able to do something to help Jaune before he ended up in the Deathlands. The fact that he'd had to save her, which put him in that position in the first place, simply made things worse.

She knew that Weiss blamed herself as well, but as far as Ruby was concerned the heiress did nothing wrong. It was all on Ruby's head. She was leader, so when something like this happened, it was on her. She was half expecting to be called to Ozpin's office and told she was no longer leader of team RWBY. Not that she'd blame him.

She hugged Zwei, who licked her reassuringly, tightly, trying not to cry again. It just wasn't fair! Jaune was her first friend at Beacon! Her fellow leader! She was sure that if their roles had been switched he'd have been able to help her. Jaune was the brains of the operation when it came to team tactics, everybody knew that.

What she didn't acknowledge was the fact that she was devastated not just at the loss of a friend. She'd never admit that she saw Jaune as something beyond friendship. As far as pretty much everyone in Beacon was concerned, Jaune was already taken by Pyrrha. Especially since the dance. So any feelings the shorter redhead had were irrelevant.

Suddenly the door banged open, making Zwei perk up and look over. Ruby, on the other hand, didn't react. She could guess who it was.

"Ruby, this is ridiculous. Get down, get a shower, and get something to eat. You already missed breakfast, even though they had strawberry pancakes." Yang said, her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed.

Ruby curled up, wrapping her arms tighter around Zwei. "I don't feel like it, Yang. Just leave me alone."

"I'm not going to let you just stay up there and have a pity party. You need to take care of yourself, and blaming yourself isn't helping anyone." The blonde said.

Ruby suddenly felt angry and turned to her sister. "Stop trying to pretend it's not my fault, Yang! Jaune is… Jaune is…" She tried desperately to keep the tears from falling. "And it's like you don't even care! 'Oh well, that's Vomit Boy gone.'" She snapped her jaw shut after yelling that out, breathing heavily.

Yang's fists were clenched as she looked down, her voluminous hair shadowing her eyes. "You think… I don't care?" She looked up at the fifteen year old. "Of course I care! This is Jaune. I may have joked around about him a lot, but he was one of us. He was a friend. But I'm not going to let you make things worse by letting you stay like this. He wouldn't want that. So you're coming with me." She reached up and grabbed her sister, pulling her out of bed despite her flailing.

"Yang! No! Let go!" Ruby yelled as she struggled.

"Not happening, sis. Get angry if you want, but this is what's best for you." Yang said, keeping a grip on the smaller girl.

"But…! But…!" Suddenly Ruby went slack, sniffling. "But, it's not fair, Yang… I want him back…"

Yang quickly turned her hold into a hug. "I know sis, I know…"

She held her as she burst into tears once again in her sister's arms.

* * *

 ** _Yay, new chapter!_**

 ** _Not much happened this time, to be honest, beyond a hint of things to come._**

 ** _I'm not really satisfied with the interaction between Ruby and Yang, but this was the best I could come up with. I might come back to it in the future._**

 ** _Just to make something perfectly clear: I don't have a clue about anything regarding survivalism. I've lived in a city all my life. Haven't even gone camping properly, to be honest. So when I write about Jaune trying to make it in the wilderness, I'm mostly pulling shit outta my ass based on common sense and what little I've learned from TV. So don't be surprised if anything involving such things is… lacking._**

 ** _In other news, whee, Volume 5 is out! So exciting. Hopefully it'll give me more stuff I can use for this story. Especially new Grimm. Could definitely use more of those._**

 ** _In other, other news, I added yet another story to my list. It's a Xander centric Buffy story. It only has one chapter so far, but give it a look and a review, if interested._**

 ** _Alright, till next time, laters._**


	6. Close and Far

Jaune dodged backwards, his footwork smooth and confident as he put his dance skills to work.

Now if only the rest of him was like his feet.

He was sweating and panting as he barely managed to dodge the swipe of an Ursa Major, a second one already slumped on the ground and evaporating, an arrow in its eye from a lucky shot. He grunted as he brought his shield up to block another swipe, the impact rattling his arm till it almost went numb.

Remembering one of Pyrrha's moves he turned with the impact, bringing his sword around in a slash with all his momentum behind it. The Ursa roared in pain as it lost use of its arm, most of it cut through so only a bit of sinew kept it attached. Jaune quickly capitalized, thrusting his sword at the massive Grimm's throat. Unfortunately the beast managed to bat the blade away with its good arm just in time, almost knocking the sword out of Jaune's grip.

He grit his teeth and dodged backwards again, trying to think of what to do now. Quickly making a decision he focused on slashing the bearlike Grimm in the unprotected belly from the side of its injured arm. The Grimm roared, twisting and turning, trying to keep its vulnerable side from him, but unfortunately for it Jaune was much smaller and faster than it was.

Finally the monster got desperate and moved to slam its enormous paw down on Jaune's head. Jaune quickly twirled to the side, bashed its head with his shield, and brought his sword down on the gap in the bone plates behind its neck, severing its spine. The Ursa dropped to the ground and began to dissipate as well.

Jaune fell on his ass with relief, exhausted. That was the third fight today. He'd previously had to deal with Griffon, and before that he fought another Bouncy Ball. He was getting downright exhausted, and he was almost out of venison. He wished he'd been willing to try and take out the brown bear he'd seen the day before. The meat from that kill would have lasted him longer than the three days the venison had. But he hadn't wanted to deal with the long, loud fight that would have entailed.

Sighing, he got up and took a sip of his canteen before picking up the arrows he'd used during the fight, once again glad he had a weapon with reusable ammo, which he wouldn't have had with a gun.

He continued to make his way along the woods, trying to keep on as straight a path as possible. He was placing all his chips on this direction leading him out of the Deathlands, and he refused to get lost or diverted.

Once he was sure he was a decent way from the site of his last fight he sat down to rest, laying his pack by his feet as he rested his back against a tree. Sighing and letting his head thump against the wood he closed his eyes, trying to get some rest before he had to walk further. "Just five minutes, Jaune. The more ground you cover, the faster you can get out."

What he wanted, more than anything else at the moment (well, besides not being in this Oum forsaken land in the first place), was to not be alone. He wanted to have his team by his side. Or RWBY. They would definitely be good to have at his back. The silence, or at least, the lack of conversation, was getting to him and he'd begun talking to himself, just to be able to hear somebody's voice. Being distracted by music while in a dangerous area might be stupid, but he honestly couldn't bring himself to care when he wished his scroll still worked so he could listen to some.

Once again, for the tenth time in the last hour, he wondered what his friends were up to back at Beacon.

* * *

Glynda was apprehensive about the matchup she'd called for in combat class. Weiss Schnee stood against Russel Thrush.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem. However, ever since Jaune Arc had fallen into the Deathlands the members of teams RWBY and JNPR had all deteriorated mentally.

Pyrrha Nikos, for example, had become easier to anger and her usual politeness was in abeyance. It was especially bad when around CRDL, or when she heard anybody say something negative about Jaune.

More pressingly, Weiss had also become more irritable. However, the most worrisome aspect was the fact that she always appeared exhausted now. Her usual immaculate appearance now sported dark bags under her eyes, along with paler than usual skin and rather stringy hair.

The hand holding Myrtenaster shook slightly, the tip wavering, showing how exhausted she was. Glynda wasn't sure that having her fight someone, even someone as admittedly below her skill as Russel was, was a good idea, now that she got a good look at the girl. Still, she knew that suggesting the heiress wasn't up to it would not be a good idea. It would be best to let this play out and use whatever happened rather than get the white haired girl's dander up.

The instructor sighed to herself before beginning the match.

The mohawked teen rushed forward, daggers at the ready and body low to the ground, trying to get in close where her rapier's piercing attacks were less effective. It was a testament to Weiss' skill that despite her exhaustion she managed to react quickly enough to jump back and swing her stab forward with her blade, a shard of ice launching itself at the boy, who flipped to the side to dodge it before continuing to rush forward.

Weiss used the brief distraction to stab her sword into the floor, creating a field of ice to inhibit Russel's charge. It worked, as her opponent had to stop his rush when he almost lost his footing. She took the afforded time to spin the dust cylinder of Myrtenaster, switching to another type.

She didn't realize that she'd switched to the wrong type of dust, so when she attempted to launch a blast of fire at Russel, a burst of wind escaped instead. Caught by surprise, Weiss lost her footing since she hadn't braced herself for the kickback, falling on her backside thanks to the slick ice on the ground.

Russel took full advantage of this, scrambling towards Weiss. In an almost panicked motion Weiss swung Myrtenaster at her opponent, who managed to jump over the swing, bringing the hilt of one of his daggers to Weiss' head, striking her temple. She cried out in surprise and swung again, sloppily. The tip clipped Russel's leg as he dodged back, but didn't do further damage. Instead he lunged forward and punched her in the face.

Despite her aura Weiss fell onto her back, dazed, and after a couple of seconds Glynda decided to call it. "Winner is Mister Thrush." She made her way to the girl who had sat up, looking despondent and tired. "Miss Schnee, you appear to be unwell. I want you to go see the nurse."

Weiss pursed her lips as she got on her feet. "I'm fine, Miss Goodwitch."

"Oh?" Glynda looked the short girl over before raising a disbelieving eyebrow. "Be that as it may, you will go speak to the nurse after class. If I find out you haven't, I'll be forced to give you detention."

Weiss clenched her fist before sighing and nodding as her body slumped slightly, making her way to where her team was watching worriedly with her head hanging down.

Gynda once again sighed, but didn't let her worry and frustration show beyond that. Jaune going missing had affected the first years badly, but the two sister teams especially. That had already been a tight knight group, and the tragedy had made them closer in their shared grief, but it wasn't hard to see that several of their number were close to self-destructing.

They needed to see about getting the children counseling. She'd need to talk to Ozpin about it. Especially as the days wore on with the search parties returning with nothing to show for it but some bruising and a few more tales for Port's class.

She didn't like admitting it, but she was losing hope as well. There was simply no way for someone of such relatively low skill as Jaune to have survived so far. Ozpin had mentioned that the council was on the verge of shutting down the search, though he'd managed to stall them.

Shaking her head, Glynda turned back to the matter at hand, going on to choose the next two opponents, the guttering flame of hope in her heart on the verge of going out.

* * *

The sun was going down, and Jaune was smiling slightly, a dead pheasant in his hand. That had been a lucky shot with his bow, which he was quite happy with.

Now he needed to find shelter for the night where he could go ahead and clean his kill. He was grateful that so far he'd avoided encounters with all but one Grimm at night, and that Alpha Beowulf had been tough as hell to fight thanks to low visibility.

He sighed before stopping, shocked as he heard something over the rustling of the leaves. It was a sound he'd become familiar with over his time at Beacon.

The sound of a bullhead flying nearby.

He immediately dropped his pheasant and started trying to scale a tree, having only moderate success. As he reached the lowest branches the sound of the bullhead got louder. He needed to get higher, otherwise the canopy of the trees would hide him from view.

As the engines of the bullhead grew ever closer Jaune got more and more desperate. Despite his better judgement he began to shout, hoping against hope that he'd get the attention of whoever was flying. "Hey! HEY! DOWN HERE! I'M RIGHT HERE!" He grunted, trying to scale the tree faster, heart hammering in his chest.

He was almost at the top when he saw the bullhead pass almost directly overhead. "No…" He got to the top, ignoring the way the tree swayed dangerously, and looked to see the bullhead moving away. "No! COME BACK! COME BACK, DAMN YOU! DON'T…" He choked. "…don't leave me here…"

The bullhead didn't turn. He obviously hadn't been noticed. He watched in disbelief as it became smaller and smaller, eventually disappearing from sight.

He wasn't aware of climbing back down the tree, but soon he found himself back on the ground, sitting against the tree, trying to keep from crying at how close he'd gotten to escaping. Having his hopes suddenly ripped away like that after getting them up was practically debilitating.

He didn't know how long he stayed sitting there, but he was brought back to his senses by a growl nearby. He turned to find a Bouncy Ball about to pounce on him. He scrambled to his feet and dodged as it jumped, landing right where he'd been.

His despair turned to fury, and he drew Crocea Mors. "I'm not… I'm not dying here." The Grimm growled at him, and he growled back. "You hear me, all of you evil bastards! YOU AREN'T KILLING ME HERE!"

The Bouncy Ball prepared to pounce, and Jaune charged with a scream of defiant fury, blade at the ready.

* * *

 ** _Hey all. Been a while on this story, hasn't it? Sorry, my bad. It's mostly because my muse has been focused on other things, though I was also waiting for Vol. 5 to finish to give me more to work with. I'm already trying to work out how I'll work in what we learned during it into this story._**

 ** _So, that Weiss fight sucked ass. I am well aware of that. I apologize. That was pretty much the best I could do. I think I got the point across though._**

 ** _Also, poor Jaune. He just can't catch a break. He's just so fun to torture, though. He won't let this stop him, though. He's scrappy._**

 ** _I think that's all I have to say. I'll try to keep the wait from being so long going forward, but I can't promise anything. It's all up to Musie. Ah well, till next time._**


	7. Scales and Tails

As the beringel screamed in fury and pain, Jaune bashed his shield into its face before slashing Crocea Mors, which was currently buried in its chest. The Grimm tried to get in one last strike even as it began to fade, but the blonde knight stepped backwards and watched as it fell, quickly dissipating into nothingness.

Jaune breathed heavily as he tried to catch his breath. It was his first time fighting the gorilla like Grimm, and they were just as tough as Port's lessons had suggested. Thankfully it was one of the lectures Pyrrha had managed to keep him awake for, so he remembered its weaknesses. It had still been a grueling fight, lasting almost thirty long, exhausting minutes. He took a deep gulp from his canteen as he leaned against a tree, quickly wiping sweat from his face.

It had been a week since he saw the bullhead flying overhead, crushing his spirit that much more. He'd had to fight for his life a lot for some time after that, his despair and fury drawing Grimm to him in large quantities. He was almost out of medical supplies, having taken so many hits, and his prized Pumpkin Pete hoodie was ripped and bloody in multiple locations from where he'd taken hits after his aura shield had broken.

Thankfully he had managed to gain some control of his emotions after the first couple of days and the flood of Grimm trying to rip him to shreds had slowed, though in keeping with the Deathlands' reputation, he still fought more than any traveler would in a normal part of the world.

If there was any upside to his situation it was that his combat skills had gone up by a truly incredible amount. He was likely never going to be an overwhelming force in combat like Pyrrha was, but his ability to think tactically and exploit his opponents' weaknesses became that much more fearsome as they were refined through constant combat. He idly wondered how he'd do in combat class now. A day in the Deathlands was worth twenty in Beacon, as far as he was concerned.

Sighing he began moving again, bow and arrow at the ready in case of any more unwelcome visitors. He'd been headed to where he could hear running water when he'd been intercepted by the beringel. He was planning to catch some fish after filling up his canteen, though one thing he hoped was that the water was deep enough to allow him to have a quick bath. He didn't care that the water would most likely be pretty cold, he was filthy, sweaty and smelly. He reached up and rubbed his chin and jaw, feeling the stubble. A shave would be good too, unlikely as it was. Thank goodness he was slow at growing facial hair. He didn't want to imagine the kind of itchy hell a dirty, tangled beard would be in this situation.

He reached the stream he had heard and was gratified to see that it wasn't very strong or wide, but it was decently deep enough for a bath.

He filled up his canteen before starting to fish, wanting to catch something before he scared them all away when he got in the water. He pulled his shoes off before slowly and carefully entering the water, looking around for fish to catch, using a sharpened length of wood he'd prepared specifically for the task.

Fifteen minutes later he had three large fish on a flat stone by the bank of the river. Satisfied, he got his clothes off before slipping back into the water, wading in till he was submerged up to his waist. He shivered at the cold, but eagerly began washing himself, getting the sweat and other general unpleasantness off of himself, all while longingly thinking of the hot showers in the Beacon dorms, or the large bathtub back at his family home that he rarely got to use without one of his sisters complaining.

Such thoughts inevitably brought his mind to his friends and family. He wondered how they were doing without him. Did they think he was dead? How were they handling that? Would his team be getting a new member to replace him?

That last thought made his chest tighten. Part of him thought that they'd probably be better off without him. He wasn't even a mediocre student, and there was no way he should have become leader over Pyrrha or Ren. He'd done his best to live up to the position, but that didn't change the fact that the team as a whole would be much stronger with a replacement that actually knew what they were doing.

His self-pitying thoughts were interrupted when something bit at a rather sensitive part of his anatomy. "Ah! Holy fuck!" He screamed as he flailed, feeling more small bites all over his lower body. He immediately began to scramble to get out of the water, trying to get away for the constant pain. When he got out of the water he collapsed onto the ground, panting at the sudden panic, before turning to see what had attacked him. What he saw made him blink, his brain stalling as it tried to comprehend the absurdity of what he was seeing.

Gathered at the bank of the stream were a group of black fish half the size of salmon covered in bone plating, sharklike masks on their faces. They were staring in his direction, as though expecting him to wade back into the water for them to continue eating.

Jaune's eye twitched. "Grimm… fish…" Another twitch. "You've got to be kidding me…" His head thumped onto the ground, overwhelmed by the sheer absurdity of what he was seeing.

Finally he sighed and got dressed, his clothes sticking to his wet body, and began preparing the fish he caught, doing his best to ignore the small Grimm still staring at him.

* * *

Ozpin's hands clenched around his cane as he glared at the screens displaying the members of the Vale Council, his normal stoic calm at its breaking point. "You cannot be serious."

"It's been almost two weeks, Ozpin." One of the councilors said. "Experienced Huntsmen have lasted less time than your student has been in the Deathlands. The odds of him still being alive are negligible. We won't authorize risking further resources on a fruitless search. As of now, the search for Jaune Arc is at an end, and he will be classified as KIA."

Ironwood stepped forward beside Ozpin as said man grit his teeth. "Councilors, please reconsider. My troops are minimizing the danger while increasing the chances of success. Give us at least another week."

"The decision has been made, General." The female councilor said. "We don't enjoy making it, but we debated over it for some time before doing so. This conversation is over, gentlemen. I would suggest you focus on preparing for the tournament." The call abruptly ended, leaving Ozpin's office silent but for the ticking of the various gears.

Glynda had her eyes closed as she tried to keep her emotions under control. It had been inevitable, really. Honestly, it was surprising that it hadn't happened sooner. As Ironwood had stated when Jaune first went missing, official policy was to essentially leave anybody stranded in the Deathlands for dead for fear of losing more people in the search. The council had looked the other way for almost two weeks, but apparently their patience was up.

"What do we do now?" Glynda asked slowly.

Ironwood shook his head. "Not much we can do. The council has made their decision, and we have to abide by it." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

Ozpin's shoulders slumped before he let out a long sigh and moving to sit behind his desk. He closed his eyes and lay his head back. "Unfortunately, James is right, Glynda. We could get away with sending search parties before under the technicality that the council hadn't yet given a specific order against it. That has changed." He reached for his mug and brought it to his lips, uncaring that the coffee was now cold. "Glynda, please inform Mr. Arc's friends of the news. I… shall contact his family."

Glynda closed her eyes again, pained as she remembered NPR and RWBY's current state. "This will destroy them…"

Ozpin nodded sadly. "Very likely. But they have a right to know. It's not like we'll be able to keep it a secret for long."

Ironwood hesitated. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

Ozpin looked up at his friend and subordinate. "Could you contact Winter Schnee and have her come with all due haste? Her presence might at the least help her sister deal with her grief and guilt. I'll contact Taiyang after I finish the call to the Arcs."

Ironwood nodded. "I can do that." He began to walk out of the office, pulling his scroll out of his pocket. Glynda followed behind him, preparing herself for her unenviable task.

Ozpin sighed once again as they left before taking a deep breath to brace himself and beginning the call to the Arc family.

* * *

The sun was on its way down, telling Jaune that he needed to find shelter for the night. He kept an eye out for something suitable while he carried his latest kill, a rabbit, in his hand, ready to be butchered.

He'd gotten rather good at finding useful locations, including a couple more buildings that were mostly hidden by overgrown vegetation but still served their purpose. He mostly slept in trees, however. It wasn't completely safe, as he had to keep a wary eye out for any nevermores, but it was still safer than sleeping on the ground, where any beowulf, ursa or creep could attack him in his sleep.

He smiled, pleased, when he spotted an opening in the rocks of the small hill he was travelling beside. He quickly readied his bow and made his way into the cave, wary for any Grimm. He stopped when he heard what sounded almost like yelping cackling. He backed away when several pairs of red eyes appeared in the gloom, gazing at him malevolently. He was almost back outside when one of the pairs rushed at him, and he barely managed to drop the bow and get his shield up in time as something bashed against it with great force. He stumbled back out into the fading sunlight and continued backpedaling as his assailants revealed themselves.

They were yet another type of Grimm he'd never seen before. They were fox like, though much larger than any normal fox. They had surprisingly little bone plate on their bodies, mostly along their shoulders and spine, their masks emphasizing their foxlike appearance.

Their oddest feature was that each one had multiple tails. He didn't have a chance to count them, but he'd guess they had about ten, more or less. The more worrisome aspect of their tails was that they had sharp looking bone plating at the ends, meaning they were most likely used as weapons.

One of the three Grimm yipped at him menacingly as its companions spread out to flank him. Jaune kept his shield up as he drew his blade, preparing himself for their inevitable attack. When the one to his right rushed him he performed an aura enhanced jump backwards, getting him away from its slashing claws. Unfortunately, he'd underestimated the length of the tails, as a couple of them swung themselves at him, hitting him in the chest and making him fall backward with a cry.

The other two immediately pounced, prompting Jaune to roll away despite the deep ache in his ribs. He'd gotten used to working through pain. He'd have been dead already otherwise. Quickly springing up he swung at the closest Grimm, scoring a lucky shot and removing one of its legs, making it yelp and fall back clumsily.

Unfortunately this cost him, as one of the others clamped its jaws around his sword arm as its tails began to pummel him, the bone plating at the end causing him a lot of pain and draining his aura rapidly. Even with his prodigious reserves, he wasn't going to last much longer.

Quickly shifting his shield into its sheathe form he took hold of it and brought it down on the Grimm's neck like a blunt sword. The instant he made impact he triggered the shift from sheath to shield, the added force of the shield springing open helping him break the thing's neck. It immediately released him and fell to the ground, already dissipating.

The last intact fox Grimm circled him warily, eyeing him with its burning red eyes. It bared its fangs as its tails lashed around, carving furrows in the dirt. Jaune got into his stance, ready for anything. Or at least, he thought he was, till an orange glow appeared in the Grimm's jaws. Alarms ringing in his head he jumped to the side just as a powerful blast of fire was launched at him, impacting a tree with explosive force, carving a huge hole in the wood.

Jaune blinked, surprised, but was caught off guard as another fireball hit him in the side where he was already injured, launching him against another tree with immense force as he cried out. He fell to the ground after impacting the tree, aura breaking and his shield slipping off his arm and tumbling away. He looked up shakily to see that the Grimm he'd crippled had been the one to launch the opportunistic attack while he hadn't been looking.

Jaune groaned and tried to get up, but the intact Grimm pounced on him and stood on his back. Its tails unfurled, ready to stab at Jaune as he continued struggling.

The blonde continued trying to get up. "I'm not dying here, dammit. I'm not!" The Grimm seemed to be savoring his growing despair, but finally it had enough and readied to attack. He looked back at the Grimm with rage in his eyes, not noticing his armor begin to glow slightly with the white of his aura. "GET OFF!" He yelled as the Grimm's tails stabbed down.

Jaune cried out in pain when he felt the pointed ends stab into his flesh. However, the pain was momentary as when several tails hit his armor there was a flash of light and the Grimm was sent flying with a surprised yelp, launched high in the air. Several of his tails had outright detached due to the force, before it impacted face first against a sturdy tree with great force, its mask shattering to pieces as its head turned to pulp. It was already so much smoke as it hit the ground.

Jaune lay on the ground, panting as he bled from his wounds. He felt more exhausted than he ever had before, his limbs aching more than they had even when he'd taken up Nora's challenge to try to keep up with her workout routine. However, a shuffling from nearby reminded him that there was still a remaining Grimm.

Struggling to get onto his knees he looked up to find the crippled Grimm preparing another fireball. Well aware that taking a hit from another one of those would kill him without a doubt, he managed to roll away when it was launched at him, the fireball missing him by inches, letting him feel the heat as it passed him by and hit another tree. As the fox panted, catching its breath, Jaune staggered to his feet and launched himself at his enemy blade first. Well, it was more of a semi controlled fall onto the little monster, but he managed to stab his blade into the Grimm's side as he dropped. The thing let out an angry, hateful growl before it dropped, dissipating quickly.

Jaune lay on the ground, panting as he tried to keep from passing out. He could see blackness approaching the edges of his vision, and he knew he needed to get to safety before he allowed unconsciousness to take him. With the last of his strength he began dragging himself into the cave, grunting with exertion, hands becoming scraped and slightly bloody as they scrambled on the rough, cracked rock of the cave entrance.

It seemed like an eternity, but after ten minutes he managed to craw inside and to a far corner of the surprisingly roomy cave, even managing to snag the rabbit and bow he'd dropped at the entrance. As he curled up against the cool stone wall he knew he needed to treat his wounds, but he simply didn't have the energy to do anything but lay there.

As his eyes slowly shut he wondered how his friends were doing without him.

* * *

"That's bullshit!" Yang roared, glaring at Goodwitch with crimson eyes.

Normally the blonde wouldn't even consider acting that way towards the stern disciplinarian, but the teacher had just informed RWBY and NPR that the search for Jaune had been called off, and it was hitting everybody hard.

Pyrrha had simply sat down, staring dazedly into nothing, an absolutely broken look on her face. Nora was curled up against Ren, tears slipping down her cheeks as she tried to contain her sobs. For his part, Ren tried to keep up a stoic façade, but it was easy to see he was only barely keeping himself together.

Ruby had buried herself in her cloak, the shaking of her shoulders and the occasional sniffle the only indication that she hadn't passed out at the news. Blake sat beside her, rubbing the little reaper's back while taking deep breaths, her eyes closed as she tried to keep hold of her own emotions. Weiss was in a similar stat to Pyrrha, staring vacantly at nothing, however tears fell from her eyes, slowly at first, but gaining speed and force, her hands clenched on her rumpled uniform.

Unlike any other time, Goodwitch did not verbally flay Yang alive. She was well aware that it was a reaction to what she'd just heard. "It was the council's decision to stop, Ms. Xiao Long. I assure you, both Headmaster Ozpin and General Ironwood fought them on this, but they would not be swayed. I'm sorry, I truly am. I wanted to continue till he was found. Unfortunately, we have been overruled." She took a deep breath, closing her eyes briefly. "As of now, Jaune Arc is considered Killed In Action, and all further attempts to recover him are to cease. Those are our orders."

Yang clenched her fists, trying to keep from lashing out. "So that's it? Oh well, too bad?"

Goodwitch gazed at her calmly. "Nothing of the sort. Beacon will arrange a ceremony in a week or so, to give his family time to attend. We honor our own, Ms. Xiao Long. Mr. Arc saved lives at the cost of his own, and he will be honored for that." She looked around at the broken group, sighing. "Teams JNPR and RWBY will have the next week off. Please, I know it will be difficult, but try to come to terms with this."

"Easy for you to say." Yang muttered angrily, though her eyes were no longer red.

"It isn't, actually, but I unfortunately have experience in these matters." Goodwitch said softly. "This is not the first person I've lost, Ms. Xiao Long. It is, sadly, not even the first student." She turned to leave. "I will cope with the loss as best I can, by doing everything I can to make sure it doesn't happen again." She nodded to the chagrined blonde before leaving, the sound of her heels fading steadily.

Yang slumped before turning to her friends, her lilac eyes anguished now. She sat down by Ruby and laid a hand on the lump that was her sister, drawing a choked sob. She closed her eyes and let her head thump back against the wall as Zwei jumped up onto her lap, curling up and offering what comfort he could. She gently ran her fingers through his fur with a forlorn sigh.

She didn't know how they'd be able to come back from this. Sure, they might be able to recover enough to continue their training, but there was no doubt that they'd never be quite the same. She especially worried about Ruby.

The petite redhead didn't think she could tell, but she'd know her sister had a crush on Jaune for a while now, even when Ruby herself likely didn't realize it. Losing her friend and crush, especially at least partly because he'd saved her life… It had the potential to really screw with her.

The others weren't much better. Weiss was wallowing in guilt. She'd actually lost weight because she hadn't been eating, and she'd almost fallen asleep into her bowl of fruit at breakfast once, she was so exhausted.

Blake, not being as close to Jaune as the others, was probably the least affected. That didn't mean she wasn't hurting. Yang wondered if this hadn't dragged up some of the bad old memories that had driven her into her obsessive mania before.

Ren and Nora at least had each other to find comfort in, no matter how in denial they were about their relationship. It would probably help them cope and eventually heal. That didn't mean the road wouldn't be rough for them.

And Pyrrha... Yang couldn't imagine how she must be feeling. Everybody and their dog knew Pyrrha was absolutely head over heals for the dorky blonde. There had been a betting pool about when she'd finally snap and drag him away to have her wicked way with him. The idea of Pyrrha Nikos going through life at Beacon without Jaune Arc at her side was downright laughable to many, no matter how jealous it made many boys and girls. Now though... Well, CRDL weren't the only ones who'd gotten screamed at by the redhead.

There had been that absolute moron who thought about 'comforting' her by suggesting they go on a date. He'd only just left the infirmary, and he still sounded funny.

Yang sighed again. What about herself? How did she feel about Jaune dying?

Like shit was the obvious answer. He'd amused her with his dorkishness, and his friendship with Ruby had made her so happy. Ruby had always been an introvert, so finding out she'd made a steadfast friend like Jaune who wasn't some sort of creep had eased her mind.

She closed her eyes again as a tear escaped them, making its way down her cheek.

Dammit, Vomit Boy...

* * *

 _ **Rejoice, tis an update!**_

 _ **Yeah, sorry bout the long wait. I have so many stories now...**_

 _ **Well, in any case, here's the long awaited update to Survival. As you can see, Jaune is having a bit of trouble with doing that. Things are going to get worse for him before they get better. Otherwise it wouldn't be as entertaining.**_

 _ **The kitsune Grimm are inspired by the ones in a story by Vital Calamity. I asked him for permission to use them ages ago, it's only just now that I managed to put them in. Hope the fight against them was good.**_

 _ **I've had several people ask me how much longer Jaune'll be in the Deathlands. I won't give a firm timeframe, but I will say that he is physically close to the edge of them...**_

 _ **Now then, hopefully the next update won't take so long, but I won't make any promises. However, there is something you can do about it.**_

 _ **I now have a Pat A Ron. it' /athanmortis . If you donate to it, you get a say in what I write each month, with one vote per dollar donated. So if you want to see this story updated next month as well, donate a buck or two and request it, and I'll be happy to get to work on it if it wins the poll.**_

 _ **I think that's all I have to say at the moment. I hope you all enjoyed. Please review. Till next time.**_


	8. Setback

Jaune plodded through the forest slowly, taking care not to aggravate the injuries he got from the damned foxes. He'd bandaged himself with the last of his medical supplies, taking some of his last pain pills. He'd been tempted to take more than the recommended dosage, but he couldn't risk it fogging his mind too much, so he was still in quite a bit of pain.

He reached the top of a cliff and paused to look out over the forest, seeing the vast expanse of trees crisscrossed with streams and rivers he still had to get through. He sighed, exhausted just by the thought of it, and made his way over to a large stone to take a seat and rest. As he sat down with a groan he began focusing on cheering himself up by thinking about what he'd do once he got out of the Deathlands.

Once he made it out he'd have an uncountable amount of cred due to being one of the only people to survive the deathtrap, and most definitely the one to survive the longest time in the deepest areas of it. Professor Port would especially be interested in hearing of his encounters with the more exotic varieties of Grimm. Something told him the thrice accursed foxes, at the least, weren't very common.

Getting out would definitely shut the mouths of everybody at Beacon that had doubted him, especially Cardin. Hell, with the rep he would get, he might even be able to get a date!

Jaune let his head fall back, closing his eyes with a grin as he imagined an adoring crowd, girls swooning and guys cheering him on, his friends standing proudly with him, no longer feeling burdened by having to carry him.

It was a nice image.

His eyes snapped open as he kept from moving a muscle. He could feel it. Something was watching him, its malevolent gaze hitting him like a blast of ice launched from Myrtenaster. Slowly, carefully, Jaune reached over his shoulder and grabbed his bow, unslinging it with slow, unhurried movements. Then he drew an arrow from his quiver, holding it ready to draw. He took a deep, shuddering breath before letting it out. Then he moved.

Jaune jumped to his feet from on top of the rock, pulling his bowstring back even as he whirled around, letting his arrow loose with the ease of many hours of combat experience, the missile flying straight and true… to impact harmlessly against the bone plating of a massive Grimm.

Jaune froze when he caught sight of what he was facing, paling as he recognized it. It had only been a brief glimpse in the moonlight on his first day in the Deathlands, but it was hard to forget the enormous Grimm centipede that had skittered passed the tree he had been hiding in.

The thing was just as large as he could remember it being, but now that he could see it clearly he could tell it was very heavily armored, white bone plate covering almost every inch of its back. Intricate glowing red patterns snaked around every inch of bone, including the long, sharp blades that made up its legs, making them look like they'd been splashed with luminescent blood. Many red eyes rested above a mouth full of razor sharp fangs, bladed mandibles at either side. It was, essentially, a long, armored, bladed tank.

"Well… fuck." Jaune muttered.

The monster gazed at him hungrily, mandibles clicking as it reared back, ready to attack. Jaune looked around for any place to run, finding just trees to the sides and the cliff behind him. Glancing down he saw it wasn't very high, but definitely higher than he felt comfortable jumping from. Then the Grimm struck, shooting forward with surprising speed. Jaune, having expected the attack, managed to jump to the side even as the stone he'd been standing on shattered from the impact of the huge insectoid, rocks flying everywhere from the force.

Jaune began to run like hell as the centipede shook its head and turned to him with a screech, quickly moving to follow, its many bladed legs stabbing into the ground, tearing it up. The knight glanced behind him, seeing the thing catching up, and managed to get that much more speed out of weary legs. Spotting a ledge halfway down the cliff, he quickly made his way above it before leaping down just as one of the monstrosities' legs swiped the air where his head had just been.

Landing with a thud Jaune didn't give his now aching knees any time to give more than a token protest before jumping again, landing on the forest floor in a roll to minimize the impact, something he'd sadly been unable to do before due to the size of the ledge, meaning his knees weren't happy with him. Turning to look behind him to see what the centipede was doing his eyes almost bugged out as he saw the thing begin making its way down the cliff easily, its legs stabbing into the rock and allowing it to climb down without any issues.

"Oh, come on!" The blonde shouted in frustration. He drew an arrow and fired in a single motion, the projectile managing to bury itself among the monster's many eyes, making it screech in fury. Seeing he hadn't done much beyond piss it off, he quickly turned and began running again, trying to get away rather than get stuck fighting a battle he knew he couldn't win.

* * *

Team RWBY was wandering the streets of Vale, trying to find something to do to keep their minds off things. It had been three days since they'd been told the search for Jaune had been called off. They had tried training for the Vytal Festival, but none of them could concentrate, and Ruby had made the decision to put that off rather than risk any of them getting seriously hurt due to inattention or fatigue.

She was seriously considering pulling them out entirely. They simply weren't in any shape to fight. Not physically, and most definitely not mentally.

"How about a movie?" She asked.

Yang and Blake shrugged, but Weiss simply stared straight ahead, not appearing to have heard her.

Ruby bit her lip. She was really trying to keep them all from breaking down further, no matter how much she personally wanted to just lay down and cry. It was her responsibility as leader. She wasn't sure that an outing was the best option, but it had to be better than just moping around the dorm. "Um, what would you like to see? I think there's a new comedy out. Something about a really weird kids camp?"

They stopped in front of the theatre and began looking at the show times, trying to decide what they were going to watch. "Alright, so, four for the camp comedy, then." When Yang nodded with a small smile and Blake shrugged Ruby continued when she didn't hear anything from their fourth member. "Sound good, Weiss?" She asked. There was a thud behind her. "Weiss…?" She asked hesitantly as she turned around, only to find Weiss passed out on the street, looking paler than usual. "WEISS!" She shrieked as she rushed over to her partner, Blake and Yang right behind her.

"Shit." Yang hissed as Blake pulled out her scroll, beginning to call an ambulance. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" Ruby whimpered. "Weiss, Weiss, wake up! Please, Weiss…"

Blake pulled the scroll away from her ear. "Ambulance is on its way." She looked at Weiss before speaking to both the operator and her teammates. "I think it's exhaustion and malnutrition. She hasn't been eating or sleeping right due to depression."

Ruby whimpered. "This is all my fault…"

Yang wrapped an arm around her sister. "No it isn't, Ruby."

"Yes it is!" Ruby exclaimed as tears travelled down her cheeks. "I knew Weiss wasn't okay, but I just let it go because I was too busy wallowing. I should have told one of the teachers or something."

"We all saw it, Ruby." Blake said softly, scroll still in hand, call still ongoing. "If you're to blame, then we are too."

Yang gave the red reaper a gentle squeeze. "Weiss-cream will be fine, Rubes. We'll help her get over this…"

Ruby simply buried her face in her sister's shoulder and cried, having trouble dealing with yet another bad thing happening in an entire month of horrible events.

* * *

Jaune sat down on a tree stump as he tried to keep from nodding off. He was utterly exhausted and having trouble keeping his eyes open.

The centipede had been stalking him non-stop for days. It popped up at the most inopportune moments, attacking whenever it could. He'd woken up once with it feet from him, losing part of his pant leg to its jaws as he tried to get away. He'd tried killing it, including setting traps like making a large boulder fall on it. Unfortunately it was devilishly fast, and craftier than it seemed, not to mention tough thanks to all its armor. One of the only reasons he was still alive was the fact that he seemed to finally be discovering his semblance.

He wasn't an idiot. He'd noticed that when he'd infused his aura into his armor or shield it pushed Grimm back violently. If he had armor that covered him a bit more fully he might not have so many issues with injuries, assuming he could infuse his armor with aura reliably. He still failed at doing so in any consistent manner.

Infusing his weapons had more interesting effects. Infusing his sword made it cut more easily, as though the aura was adding to its sharpness. It made dealing with the tougher Grimm easier, as it got through their durability. It wasn't like Grimm other than the centipede had stopped attacking him just because it was following him like he once had Weiss, after all. If anything the constant stress had made it worse.

And he'd only tried imbuing his arrows once. The result had been satisfying, the arrow exploding violently once it had penetrated, but the arrow had been destroyed, which meant he would run out of ammo if he continuing using it with no way to resupply. That was something he was unwilling to risk. He was running low as it was.

He reached into his bag and pulled out some smoked meat from a rabbit he'd managed to catch recently. Tearing into it hungrily he did his best to keep his energy up despite wanting to get some sleep. He might be able to sleep for a few hours before the damn centipede interrupted him again, but he wanted to make as much progress as he could while there was daylight. The sooner he made it out, the better.

Jaune cracked his neck before quickly leaping forwards from his sitting position, managing to just barely keep from getting slashed to ribbons as his personal stalker appeared again, chittering angrily as its prey escaped it once more.

"Tch, now I know how Pyrrha feels." Jaune grunted with a scowl, too tired and irritated to bother being afraid anymore. "Would you just leave me alone, you asshole!?" He shouted, the Grimm's growl pissing him off further.

The monster shrieked and launched itself at him, its many blades tearing up the ground as it made its way with the intent to devour the blonde knight.

Jaune once again jumped away with an aura enhanced leap, unslinging his bow and drawing an arrow as he did so, taking aim at his enemy, waiting for the opportunity to strike.

The Grimm quickly turned to follow him, and Jaune fired. Unfortunately, the arrow bounced off the armored mask protecting its head. It let out another screech as the arrow hit the ground, slashing down at it, breaking it in two.

"Oh come on!" Jaune shouted, pissed off even more now. "I don't have many of those left!" Then he turned and ran, getting behind a tree just as the centipede slammed into it with a crunch, making the thick trunk splinter and lean over at an angle. As the monstrosity started spitting wood out of its mouth Jaune came around with Crocea Mors drawn, slashing non-stop at the unarmored underside of the thing's head, the blade glowing white as he forced as much aura through it as he could.

The monster screeched in pain as painful wounds opened up in its black flesh, and it suddenly swiped at Jaune's side, sending him flying with a cry, his aura beginning to get low. He shakily pushed himself up, coughing from the force of the impact against the ground. Quickly picking up his sword he once again grabbed his bow and drew an arrow. He focused his will, trying to imbue it with his aura, praying it would work this time. When the arrowhead began to glow white Jaune smiled, took aim, and let it fly.

The shot did exactly what he needed it to, hitting the centipede right in one of the wounds he'd inflicted with Crocea Mors. It then exploded with tremendous force, ripping the thing's jaw clean off. It screeched in absolute agony, thrashing around in rage and pain. Jaune didn't waste any more time and ran away, doing his best to get as far as he could before it came after him again. He'd wounded it, yes, quite a bit, but he wasn't stupid enough to think he'd be able to kill it when it was pissed off like that.

With any luck, it would think twice about following him any further. He wasn't holding his breath, though.

* * *

Weiss groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. The constant exhaustion that had kept her company for weeks now threatened to drag her eyes back shut, but she managed to fight it back to fully open them, the light stabbing straight to her brain, making her groan and bring a hand up to shield her eyes.

"I'm glad to see that you've finally woken up, Weiss. This is not the state I wanted to see you in when I arrived." A familiar voice said, making Weiss jerk in surprise, her head turning to the person seated by her bed.

"W-Winter?" Weiss stuttered.

Winter Schnee leaned forward, a rare, gentle smile on her face. She was, as always, immaculately dressed in her Atlesian Specialist uniform, her silver hair up in an elegant yet functional bun, a long lock of hair along the side of her face. "Hello Weiss. I got here as soon as I could when General Ironwood told me that you needed some support and gave me leave to help you."

Weiss couldn't help it, feeling tears gather in her eyes at the sight of her beloved sister. She did her best to hold them back. "I-I'm glad to see you, sister."

"I wish it could be under better circumstances." She took Weiss' hand, surprisingly gentle considering her normally strict persona. "You haven't been taking care of yourself, Weiss. I thought you knew better."

Weiss flinched and looked away. "I… It's just…"

"Do you think Jaune Arc would want you to kill yourself like this after he gave his life for you?" Winter asked softly, her face making it clear she was well aware of how low a blow that was.

Weiss flinched again, whimpering slightly. "B-but… It's my fault, Winter. He was a doofus, but he deserved better than dying scared and alone in the middle of a place like that… He shouldn't have died… Not for me…"

Winter sighed before getting up and moving to sit beside her sister, wrapping her arms around the younger girl, who promptly began to sob. She remembered when they were children, back before such displays had been figuratively beaten out of them. They'd both learned early on to never look to their parents for comfort, and had instead looked after each other. Stormy nights after a nightmare, Weiss had clutched onto Winter for comfort and the scant love she didn't get anywhere else. She needed to remember back to those times, because her current attitude and demeanor wouldn't do much to help her sister.

"Weiss, people rarely reach the ending they deserve, especially in our profession. I have seen many others go through what you have, and I have lost comrades as well." She moved back and wiped her sister's cheeks. "I've spoken with your friends about Mister Arc. From everything they told me, dying to save a friend is precisely the end a man like that would want."

"He still died for me, Winter…" Weiss said hoarsely.

"Yes he did. Which is why you must now live on in his honor. Prove yourself worthy of that sacrifice. You have a responsibility now, Weiss, to make sure that death was not in vain. And I never thought you to be the type to shirk your responsibilities." Winter finished softly, her experience as a military woman shining through.

Weiss was silent, looking down at the sheets, eyes in turmoil. Finally, she let out a long sigh. "…I will, Winter. It's the least I can do."

Winter smiled lightly. "Good." She wrapped an arm back around her sister and simply held her for a few seconds before continuing. "Mister Arc's family arrived earlier today." She felt Weiss tense up again. "I spoke with them briefly. They want to meet you."

"I… I…" Weiss hesitates, unable to speak.

"The memorial service will be tomorrow." When Weiss looked up in surprise Winter continued. "You've been unconscious for a while now. Still, they want to meet you and your friends afterwards. So you should rest and recover so you can be at your best when you do so."

Weiss looked panicked for a time, breathing heavily at the thought of confronting Jaune's family, but she managed to get herself under control. "O-Ok..."

Winter let her sister go and sat back up. "Get some rest, Weiss. I'll let your team know you're alright. You frightened them quite a bit."

Weiss wanted to protest, but she could already feel her eyes getting heavy. "Alright…" She said as she began drifting off.

The elder Schnee sighed as she watched her sister fall back asleep, hoping that she would be able to overcome this trial and emerge stronger from it.

* * *

The sun was making its way down the sky when Jaune emerged from the tree line to an area almost entirely clear of trees around a raging river. Said river was nearly twenty yards wide, full of rocks and water that was moving far too rapidly to cross. He could hear the sound of a waterfall somewhere nearby. However, none of that held Jaune's attention.

Above the trees, on the other side of the river, he could see smoke rising to the sky. It wasn't the smoke of an uncontrolled fire, as far as he could tell, but rather the kind of smoke often seen leaving chimneys. And not just a single chimney, but multiple ones.

Jaune smiled widely before he began laughing, throwing his fists in the air. "Finally!" He cried out between almost mad cackles. "I'm finally almost out of here!" With a grin on his face he made his way to the river to look for a way across.

The water, as noted before, was too fast and strong for him to make his way across that way, especially with his gear weighing him down. The stones were spaced too widely apart, and he didn't trust himself to not slip on the wet stone if he tried jumping anyway. And he didn't think he'd be able to jump all the way to the other side in one leap, even with aura. That meant he had to find or make a way across.

He began walking up along the stream, hoping to find an area with a denser concentration of rocks for him to walk across. It took a while of searching, but after several minutes he found an almost clichéd fallen log, the dead tree forming a bridge over the rushing water. "Heh, looks like Lady Luck finally decided to give me a smile."

Of course, he should have known better than to tempt fate, because he immediately afterward heard a crash behind him. He whirled around before letting out a loud curse as he saw his stalker had returned. "Dammit all, why can't you just be satisfied with a missing jaw, you fucking asshole!?"

The centipede screeched from said missing jaw and quickly began making its way towards him. Jaune quickly unslung his bow and loosed a couple of arrows, trying to hit the Grimm in its now unprotected mouth. His opponent wasn't stupid, however, and quickly moved so its mask protected its vulnerabilities. The huntsman moved away as the monster once again tried a bashing attack, but was caught by surprise when its armored tail suddenly came around and slammed into his stomach, launching him away and almost dropping him into the water.

Jaune got up with a groan and immediately drew an arrow. As the beast skittered towards him He infused the arrow with his aura and took aim. The beast screeched, recognizing what he was doing as the act that had taken its jaw, and rather than continue charging headlong it abruptly stopped moving, turning its body to use the momentum to try to slam into him with its tail again. Caught by surprise Jaune let the arrow loose. It hit the tail, blowing out a chunk of bone armor, but the attack was only slowed slightly. He quickly put up his bow to defend, and the tail hit with a crack, breaking his trusty weapon into pieces and once again launching him back.

Jaune managed to get up woozily before looking down at the two pieces of his bow he still had, both still attached by the string. Looking up at the Grimm, which was readying itself to attack again, he promptly turned and ran for the log, hoping that crossing the river would keep the monster from reaching him.

He jumped onto the log and began making his way across as quickly as he could without falling. Unfortunately, the Grimm saw its prey trying to escape and acted swiftly to keep that from occurring. Stabbing its front legs into the ground to anchor itself, it once again swung its tail at him. Jaune saw it coming and managed to keep from getting hit, but the same couldn't be said about his bridge. The wood immediately shattered, the remains of the log falling into the water and taking Jaune with them, the knight immediately being dragged along by the current.

The blonde did his best to keep his head above water, the river deeper than he'd thought, and he tried to grab hold of the rocks to stop himself, only succeeding in injuring himself. That's when he noticed the waterfall.

If he hadn't been so focused on continuing to breathe the huntsman would have screamed in sheer, unadulterated frustration. It was like a bad movie, except it was happening to him! The universe was having a laugh at his expense.

Wet, close to drowning, hope ripped from his hands once again, and about to die, he could only do one thing as he watched the monster that had tormented him for nearly a week and apparently finally killed him recede into the distance, watching him with its many red eyes.

"FUUUUUUUUCK YOOOO-" He began, before a brief weightlessness took hold as he finally reached the waterfall. Then, a long, long descent.

* * *

 ** _I AM HERE!_**

 ** _Hey all. No, your eyes do not deceive you, I updated this story yet again. Why? You can thank the Patron vote for that. Ask, and ye shall receive._**

 ** _So… Jaune's luck kinda sucks, doesn't it? I mean, he was soooo close, and then… *snap fingers*_**

 ** _I know many people wanted him to attend his own funeral like a badass, but that was never the plan. I've known how he would be making his triumphant return to civilization since the beginning. It won't be too much longer, though. Don't worry._**

 ** _Besides, he hasn't discovered the secrets of the Deathlands yes. As I've stated before, I've always intended for there to be something special about the place, and the new lore revealed in the latest RWBY eps has made my job that much easier, as they've given me something to work with. I hope you all end up liking what I have in mind. We'll be seeing it in the next chapter._**

 ** _I think that's all for now. Please leave me a review if you enjoyed it. And if you want to see more of this, you get a vote if you donate to Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis. Hope to see you there._**

 ** _Till next time._**


	9. Hidden Depths

Gasping, coughing, flailing. He was being dragged down by the raging current and his gear. Desperate he removed his armor, the metal and ceramic sinking to the bottom of the surprisingly deep river. He took a deep breath when he finally managed to get his mouth above water, only to lose consciousness when his head hit a large stone that almost broke his skull like an egg, aura or no.

The body of the blonde knight continued travelling down the stream, eventually reaching the mouth of a dark cave, dropping down another, smaller, waterfall as he went beneath the earth.

* * *

Teams RWBY and JNPR were nervous, dressed in their best clothing, as they waited for the people who had asked to meet with them.

It was the day of Jaune's memorial service, but the Arc family had requested to meet with Jaune's friends and teammates, so Ozpin had afforded them the use of one of the classrooms for the meeting a half hour before the service.

Ruby fidgeted, waiting anxiously. She glanced at Weiss, finding her partner gazing down at the ground from where she sat, hands folded on her lap. She still looked drawn and unwell, but it was still an improvement over how she'd been not that long before.

The reaper looked up when the door opened and a mass of blonds entered along with two heads of dark brown hair. The two teams immediately stood up somewhat apprehensively, and Ruby and Pyrrha stepped toward the group, faces solemn.

An older woman, in her mid-fifties, with grey streaks in her bright yellow hair, was the first to greet them, smiling tremulously even though she looked drawn, her eyes bloodshot from constant tears. "Hello. You must be my son's friends…"

Ruby did her best to smile. "Yeah, that's us. I'm Ruby Rose. I lead team RWBY, with my sister Yang, and Weiss and Blake. This is Pyrrha Nikos. Pyrrha was on the team Jaune led, along with Nora and Ren."

"Hello…" Pyrrha said softly as the others gave their own subdued greetings.

The only man in the entire group, his hair almost completely white but for some streaks of sandy blonde hair, nodded back. He was probably about sixty, and he had the face of someone that was used to smiling, though his face showed a bone deep weariness now. "I'm Ferrus Arc. This is my wife, Clementine, and my daughters: Azura, Coral, Alba, Aurelia, Xanthe, Veridian and Saphron, along with Saphron's wife Terra Cotta-Arc and their son, Adrian." Each woman mentioned nodded or waved, small smiles on most of them, though a couple couldn't manage it, and one outright scowled at them.

"Jaune told us about all of you in his letters to us." Saphron said from where she had an arm wrapped around her darker haired wife, who was holding their sleeping infant. She looked tired, just like everyone else. "He… was really happy to have you as friends. Really proud of how amazing you all are, as fighters and people."

"Fat lot of good it did him…" One of them, a short haired one who was wearing dark trousers with suspenders over a white dress shirt, growled, making the students flinch.

"Azura, that's uncalled for." Another one of the Arc women said, this one a girl about a year older than most of the students, large, thick glasses on her face, long hair in a bun and a dark blue dress on. "From the reports Professor Ozpin showed us, there wasn't anything they could have done. It was bad luck. If you have to blame anybody, blame the Grimm."

"How about I blame this goddamn school, Xanthe?" Azura snarled. "Jaune had no place studying here. He didn't have the skill. We all know it. If this place had done its job they would have bounced him back home, where he'd have been safe. But no, they had to let him play pretend, and now look at what happened!"

Pyrrha didn't know what made her do it, but she stepped forward, looking at Azura. "Jaune may have had some things to work on, that's true, but he was improving every day. He was able to hold his own in combat class now, and I helped tutor him almost every night."

"Then you're as much to blame for his death as this fucking school is!" Azura practically screamed at Pyrrha, teeth gritted in a snarl of pained rage.

The redhead staggered back as though physically struck, her eyes wide and hurt. Two of the other Arcs, the twins who looked and dressed identically, glared at their sister. One of them shouted at her older sister. "What the fuck is wrong with you!?" The other crossed her arms and glared.

"ENOUGH!" roared the oldest sibling, who looked to be in her early thirties and was dressed in a dark suit, her hair the brightest yellow of the family. "We're all ragged and easy to set off, so calm down." She looked at her confrontational sister. "Azura, I understand you're upset, but don't take it out on Jaune's friends. They're hurting as much as we are." She turned to Pyrrha, who was looking down at the floor, Nora and Ren's hands on her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Miss Nykos. Azura tends to lash out when she's upset. You didn't deserve that."

"I… I understand…" Pyrrha said softly.

"Please…" Weiss said, stepping forward. "Please don't be angry at Pyrrha, or any of the others. If anybody deserves your scorn, it's me." She bowed her head. "I'm the reason Jaune died. If he hadn't saved my life, he'd still be here." She started to cry, tears rolling down her cheeks. Funny, she thought she'd cried herself out when she was with Winter. "I treated him horribly, but he still helped me. I…" She let out a sob. "I'm so, so sorry."

The Arcs looked at each other, most unsure about what to do. Finally, Jaune's mother moved forward and gathered the crying white haired girl into her arms, tears in her own eyes as well. Weiss stiffened as she felt the arms encircle her.

"There's nothing to forgive, dear. You can't imagine my sorrow at having lost a child. But you also can't know how proud I am that he went out saving someone else. He died a hero, and that comforts me." She gave the heiress a gentle squeeze. "Do your best to honor his sacrifice, and I'll be content."

Weiss sobbed harder, but the Arc matriarch's words did what even her own sister's hadn't really been able to, no matter how much they'd comforted her. She felt like she could begin to heal now, even though it would take a long time.

Azura sighed and moved over to Pyrrha, who looked up at her tentatively. "I'm sorry." She said gruffly. "You didn't deserve that. It's just…" Her voice changed, the tough girl tone disappearing to leave raw anguish behind. "I lost my little brother…"

Pyrrha blinked before suddenly reaching forward to wrap her arms around a surprised Azura. "And I lost the man I loved…" She said, stating her feelings out loud for the first time, tears in her clenched eyes.

Azura blinked before wrapping her arms around Pyrrha, her face twisting with pain as she finally began to cry as well, letting herself mourn.

The rest of the teens and Arcs moved together, hugging each other and consoling each other. Saphron wept on her wife's shoulder, Terra rubbing her back and whispering reassurances while she kept the still sleeping Adrian from waking.

There was a knock at the door to the classroom, and several of the mourners turned to find Goodwitch standing in the doorway, her expression soft. "The service is about to start…" She said gently.

The Arcs and the students disentangled themselves from each other and quickly cleaned up, making themselves presentable. Then, each one taking a deep, fortifying breath, they headed into the auditorium.

The auditorium was packed with students and teachers ready to honor a fallen comrade. Glynda guided the Arcs to a place reserved for them as RWBY and JNPR moved to be with the other Beacon students, passing by team SSSN, who nodded to them, Sun and Neptune especially given their friends their best reassuring smiles. Ruby caught sight of Penny in the back, who waved slightly. Weiss saw Winter standing behind the Atlas delegation, the Specialist catching her sister's eye and nodding.

Once everyone was in position Ozpin stepped forward alongside a wreathe of white and yellow flowers that held a picture of Jaune, who was smiling sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. Velvet sighed as she recognized the picture she'd provided.

"Of the many duties I have as headmaster of this institution, there is none I dislike more than this one. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the profession we have chosen, it is one I have to perform more than I would like. However, not matter how many times I am forced to do so, saying goodbye to a promising youth who will never be able to accomplish their dreams never gets easier. Nor do I wish it to."

He was silent for a moment, thinking before he looked back out at the crowd. "Jaune Arc was not the greatest fighter this school has had. Nor was he the most proficient at the academic side of things. But he had talent in spades when it came leadership and group tactics and strategy. Indeed, he had the highest score in the assessment for those aspects in the last four years. It shows in how, during the initiation test, he led a team of people he, in some cases, didn't even know the names of, against a deathstalker, and killed it with a demonstration of an intuitive grasp of each person's strength, handily defeating a Grimm that even many recent graduates would have had trouble with. After seeing such a display, making him leader of team JNPR was the easiest decision I've made with regards to teams in quite a while."

He paused again, once again gathering his thoughts. "He was not just a leader for his grasp of tactics, however. Over time he demonstrated empathy and willingness to assist whoever needed it, even protecting people he'd had… disagreements with." More than one set of eyes flicked over to CRDL. "He was also able to, with a bit of prodding, admittedly, recognize his own shortcomings and mistakes, and work to remedy them. Those were qualities that are, unfortunately, relatively rare to find."

"I have no doubt that, given enough time, if he'd kept up the rate of improvement in all areas that he'd already demonstrated, he would have been one of our best when he graduated." Then Ozpin sighed. "Unfortunately, we will no longer be able to see that happen."

"Mr. Arc died saving the lives of his friends. He did not hesitate, he did not falter. He simply did it. And while I highly doubt he expected for events to conspire to take his life, everything I know of him tells me he would not have thought twice even if he'd been aware." He turned to Jaune's picture and bowed his head. "Rest easy, Jaune Arc, knowing that we carry on in part thanks to your sacrifice."

"May you be at peace, wherever you are now…"

* * *

The first thing he was aware of was the cold. Not like stepping outside in winter without a coat, but more like stepping out into a cool early spring breeze without clothes after a cold shower. He shivered as he opened his eyes, not seeing much of anything. Wherever he was, it was dark, only a dim illumination coming from a tunnel off to the side letting him see the walls of the cave he'd ended up in.

Jaune winced as he turned his head, feeling the knot in the back of it throb. His body was still mostly submerged in the now calmer water, the current lacking the strength to carry him away from the cold stone he'd landed on, though it tried. With a groan he dragged himself away from the water, his entire body aching after being battered by the raging rapids and rocks. Slumping once his boots had clear the water he lay there, trying to get his strength back.

He needed to get out of his soaked clothing. He was going to catch his death of cold otherwise. Slowly he got up, and that's when he finally noticed that the pack holding his supplies was no longer on his shoulders. He had a vague recollection of shrugging it off as he tried to keep above water in order to remove his armor.

Frantically he reached down, checking for Crocea Mors, sighing with relief when he felt it still strapped securely to his hip. He didn't know what he'd do if he lost his family's heirloom sword. Not only would it be a great personal loss, it would severely reduce his chances of survival.

A bit more checking revealed that he still had the hunting knife strapped to his boot and his quiver strapped to his lower back, though it was empty now, the arrows having escaped in his tumble through the river. Not that they were much good to him without a bow. He growled angrily at the memory of the damn centipede breaking it, only to wince as the action aggravated his head injury.

Looking around once again he decided to head in the direction of the light that was letting him see. He didn't have any better ideas, and he needed to find somewhere he could take his clothes off and let them dry.

He could feel his aura working on healing his battered and bruised body as he slowly made his way down the passageway, but it seemed more sluggish than usual. If he had to guess, it was because of how low his aura was after the fight and subsequent events. That just meant he'd have to take it slow.

Finally, he reached a small, dry cavern. A hole high in the ceiling let light in, and the area underneath it, where the light would hit, had plenty of plant life growing. Sighing in relief, Jaune moved over to the patch of greenery and quickly took off his soaked clothing, wincing when he saw the mass of bruises covering his body. He set his clothes under the sunbeam to help them dry, sitting down with another sigh in just his boxers. He already felt warmer just from not being in a waterlogged hoodie and jeans. He only wished he still had his lighter so he could start a fire in order to warm up faster.

Now that he was sitting down and not focused on needing to do something, however, he was having trouble keeping from freaking out over how screwed he was without his supplies, not to mention his anger and despair over the fact that he had been so, so close to civilization, only to have it all yanked away by that damned centipede.

If he ever saw that thing again he was going to rip it to tiny shreds if it was the last thing he did.

It was a lot like what he'd felt when he'd seen that bullhead flying overhead. Except worse. At least then he'd still had his supplies and bow.

Carefully resting the side of his head rest against the cool stone wall of the cave Jaune closed his eyes. He felt tired, and the warmth of the sunlight made him sleepy. Vaguely he remembered some advice about falling asleep with a head injury, but it slipped his mind as he relaxed, let his weariness drag him down into the land of dreams.

* * *

When Jaune next awoke the sun was dimmer than before, but the light and chill he felt indicated it was morning light and not evening. Apparently he'd slept through the night without being attacked and eaten. It seemed like Lady Luck decided to throw him a bone.

Checking his clothes he found them mostly dry, the hoodie still damp, but tolerably so. He hurriedly put them on and sighed in slight relief at the protection from the chill of the morning. Reaching back experimentally he noted that the bump on his head was almost entirely gone and barely ached, meaning his aura had done its job, seeing as his bruising was also mostly faded.

Feeling thirsty he walked back to the river he'd washed up in, quickly drinking some of the cool water. He was about to move away after having slaked his thirst when he caught movement in the dark water. He tensed, waiting for something horrible to emerge to try to kill him, but relaxed when a completely normal fish poked its head up briefly, trying to catch whatever had been disturbing the surface of the water.

Knowing he was going to be feeling hungry soon, even though he didn't have anywhere to cook anything, Jaune knelt by the water's edge and lightly dipped the fingers of one hand in. When the fish poked at his fingers experimentally he quickly struck with his other hand, grabbing the fish and launching it onto the stone behind him before it could wriggle away. It flopped about, gasping for air, and Jaune quickly picked up a small stone and bashed the animal's head, putting it out of its misery.

Smiling at his success, Jaune turned back to the river and did some more fishing. It took him another half hour, but he got two more decently sized fish. Strapping his catch to his belt he made his way back to the cave to figure out his next step.

Not having anything better to do he made his way to the tunnel at the opposite end of the cavern that he'd entered from. He hadn't noticed it before, since he'd been focused on getting warm, but now he could see it, and he hadn't seen a way out back the way he came.

The tunnel was dark, so while he still had a bit of light to navigate by he put his hand against the stone wall, following it as he walked carefully along the uneven cave floor, the gloom slowly deepening the further he went.

He didn't know how long he walked, but his stomach was growling and his throat felt a bit dry when he finally noticed a dim light illuminating the tunnel again. Eager to find out where he was now he moved forward faster, hoping for some water and something he could use to cook his fish. That was all blown away when he reached the tunnel exit, his eyes going wide as a gasp of awe escaped him.

He was standing on a ledge halfway up the wall of an enormous cavern, much larger than Ruby had told him Mountain Glenn was. Holes in the cavern ceiling let light in to illuminate the place. But that wasn't what awed him. Inside the cave was a city. Ancient buildings made of stone occupied he space, looking to be surprisingly intact despite their obvious age, though a fallen wall or crumbled building was noticeable here and there, especially near the small river that cut through the middle of the city. At the far end on the cave he could make out what looked to be some sort of temple, a glint of gold catching his eye. Interspersed around the city itself were patches of vegetation, trees and other plants growing to show how nature had reclaimed the areas the sunlight reached.

Jaune had never, ever heard of an ancient subterranean city before. Especially not in the Deathlands. He knew that Doctor Oobleck would immediately pass out if he caught even a single glimpse of this place. He really wished his scroll worked, because he'd love to take pictures of this sight, knowing that nobody would believe him without them.

His awe was interrupted when he caught sight of movement, however, and he saw a beringel lumbering along down a path in the distance. He grimaced. Of course this place was full of Grimm. What else could he possibly have expected?

Wanting to get down off the ledge before something spotted him he glanced around, finding an old, worn down staircase carved into the wall that would let him travel down into the city proper. Quickly yet carefully he made his way down, almost slipping and falling twice. He sighed in relief when he reached the ground.

Glancing around he found that he was in one of the areas of greenery. A couple of trees grew moderately high, with some shrubbery and flowers adding some color. Somewhat hidden by the plants was a partially collapsed well. Thirsty, Jaune moved over to it, looking down to see the glint of water not that far away. Then he frowned as he realized he didn't have his canteen anymore. Moving back from the well with a sigh he stiffened when he felt the hot breath of something behind him.

He was just starting to whirl around, reaching down to draw Crocea Mors, when something slammed into his side and sent him flying, his aura shimmering from the impact of both the attack and the impact with the ground. He groaned and pushed himself up, coughing lightly as he looked up to see what had attacked him.

It was another beringel. It glared at him, growling menacingly, before pouncing on the downed knight. Jaune immediately rolled away from the Grimm's attack as its fists left dents in the packed ground. Quickly scrambling to his feet he drew his sword and expanded his shield, ready to fight back.

Remembering the last time he fought one of these, Jaune held his shield up, waiting for the aggressive Grimm to attack. The beringel obliged and launched itself at the huntsman-in-training with a howl, who proceeded to sidestep and bring his glowing sword around. The Grimm howled louder as its right arm was removed, stumbling as its body weight suddenly shifted. It spun around, snarling as Jaune glared at it, shield once again up and at the ready. He'd learned to methodically take his time with Grimm like this one. He needed to be especially careful now that he didn't have any armor.

The fight went on that way for another five minutes, the beringel attacking and Jaune either countering or blocking with his glowing sword and shield. Soon enough Jaune was able to remove the Grimm's head once it was on the ground, both arms severed and one of its knees crushed from impacting his glowing shield. The blonde sighed in relief and sheathed his weapon as the beringel began to dissipate.

Looking around he found himself by the open doorway to a small building, whatever door that had been there gone from the passage of time. Since he hadn't seen the beringel before it attacked he figured that's where it'd been hiding.

Walking into the building he looked around. The first thing he noticed was what appeared to be battle damage on the walls. The source was soon revealed to be a skeleton at the base of the stone staircase in the corner, a mace laying dented and broken beside its hand, its ribs crushed inward, giving an obvious cause of death. Considering the scraps of clothing and armor it still had on (none of which looked like it would serve Jaune's purposes, sadly), Jaune figured it was someone who'd died long after this city had been abandoned, though still some time ago. Probably one of the many people who had tried to explore the Deathlands throughout the centuries and never made it out.

Deciding that it wouldn't hurt to check to see if he had left anything of use behind, Jaune carefully moved around the remains and up the stairs. Whoever it had been had obviously been guarding the way up before dying.

On the second floor he found the remains of four more people. Unfortunately, almost anything of use, including weapons and armor, had either been destroyed in the fight that had killed them, or had deteriorated due to age to the point of worthlessness. The only things that looked like they might still be usable were some stainless steel cooking supplies and utensils, which just needed to be washed. Still, at least he had some steel mugs to get some water now. This included some flint, most likely used to start cooking fires, since dust could run out. It wasn't his dust lighter, but Jaune wasn't going to complain about having what he needed to cook the fish he was still lugging about.

The only other thing he found was a small metal strongbox the only unarmed skeleton was clutching. Respectfully removing it from the skeleton's hands, wincing when he accidentally damaged the bones more than they already were, he inspected it, seeing if there was any way to open it. Thankfully he saw that a rusty key was still in the lock. Carefully turning it, hoping it wouldn't break off considering how fragile it felt, he smiled when it clicked, a slight rush of stale air indicating the box had been environmentally sealed, likely something very expensive during the time of whatever expedition this was from. Whoever this was, they'd been pretty wealthy and/or well connected.

Wondering what was so important to this person that they'd kept it in a box like this, he opened it to find… a yellowed, leather bound journal. Jaune blinked, surprised, but then considered it. If whoever this person was had been an explorer or researcher, then they likely would have considered their notes extremely important.

Somehow Jaune new that, back at Beacon, Oobleck had begun salivating without knowing why.

Opening the journal to a random page, his eyebrows rose when he saw it was dated a little under a decade before the Great War. This expedition was even older than he'd thought.

His growling stomach reminded him of his priorities, and he shut the journal and put it back in its box without locking it. He'd read it after lunch.

* * *

Hours later, Jaune was going through the journal again, his stomach settled and content as the bones of the three fish he'd eaten were set to the side.

The journal was pretty interesting. It detailed the journey of five people into the Deathlands: the researcher/explorer, Sophia Sand, and a team of four hired mercenaries with combat specialties who were essentially proto-Huntsmen. Sophia had received a grant from the King of Vale to go into the Deathlands and investigate what, if anything, made it such a deathtrap. Though Jaune had initially wondered why the King hadn't assigned some of his own troops to the task of escorting her, apparently it had been Sophia's idea to hire a small group of combat specialists.

Sophia had catalogued the various species of Grimm they'd encountered as they traveled including detailed sketches of them when possible. That information alone was worth a pretty penny back in her day. Though he noted they apparently hadn't encountered the damned centipede.

He'd just reached a point several days after Sophia and her team found the hidden city. They'd apparently come across one of the holes in the ceiling that let light in and seen the buildings, so had found the opening nearest to the wall and ground and rappelled down. Sophia had proceeded to draw sketches of what she saw in between her writings.

 _Truly this is the greatest find in possibly many lifetimes. An ancient city of a people never heard of in all the rest of Remnant's known history. Who were they?_

 _We have found some surviving wall carvings here and there when we are not avoiding attracting the attention of the roaming Grimm. Something which is difficult, as there is an even denser population here than outside. I speculate something must attract them here, though what that could be I haven't the foggiest idea._

 _In any case, the carvings. They depict a peaceful people who apparently had never had any issue with the Grimm, considering the fact that not a single carving has depicted one of the creatures even incidentally. This fact is astounding, especially considering the unnatural population density in this day and age. This makes many hypotheses come to mind._

 _Could the people of this city have had some sort of defense against the Grimm? Something that kept them away from the cave? Possible, but I consider it unlikely. That does not explain the lack of any Grimm presence in their carvings._

 _Could the common people have been kept ignorant of the Grimm in order to make the likelihood of their fear attracting the creatures minimal? Slightly more likely, in my opinion, yet still not my preferred option. Such a gambit is unlikely to last long, as all it would take would be one national tragedy, one natural disaster, and the Grimm would be upon them like ants on a piece of dropped taffy._

 _That means, as unbelievable as I personally find the option, the most likely explanation is that this city predates the Grimm. Which is astounding, as the Grimm have been a constant throughout all known human history. The idea that we have found a remnant of a time before them…_

 _I may, of course, be wrong. I want to investigate the temple before drawing further conclusions. From the way it glints in the sunlight, it seems to be adorned in gold, which is plenty of reason for my companions to want to travel there. But there is something else that attracts my attention. Both my team and I have noticed that there is an odd glow from it at night that gold would not explain. There is something there, maybe even something that backs up the first, unlikely hypothesis. Though why it would have stopped working and allowed the Grimm to slaughter the people here, I do not know. I guess we will find out._

 _I am so excited. Not only is all of this fascinating, but when I return to the King's court with my findings, my name will be written in history._

 _The dreams of my childhood are so tantalizingly close. I hope Julie will be proud of me._

Jaune sighed, feeling sorry for Sophia. She'd made such an incredible find, at such great risk, and she'd ended up forgotten, like so many others this place had swallowed whole.

Not feeling like reading any more, he set the journal in its box, determined to bring it back with him when he made it out of the Deathlands. It would serve as proof of what he'd found, and it would hopefully give closure to the spirit of Sophia and her team.

Glancing out of the window of where he was sitting on the second floor, Sophia and her team's remains laying nearby, he saw that it was getting dark. Setting Crocea Mors in his lap, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice, he settled in to sleep. He'd look for a way out of the city in the morning. For now, he'd get some rest.

Yawning he glanced once again at the skeleton he presumed was Sophia's. "Don't worry. I'll make sure all of your names are remembered." He closed his eyes, falling asleep in an instant.

* * *

 ** _Woot! Finally reached one of the chapters I've been looking forward to._**

 ** _So yeah, now we've seen part of the reason the Deathlands are special. The rest of it will be revealed to Jaune soon enough. If you want a visual image of the city, I had in mind something like the lost city of Kitezh from Rise of the Tomb Raider._**

 ** _About the scene with the Arcs at the beginning, I'm not really satisfied with it, though something tells me I never will be. Still, I feel like it could have been implemented much better. Unfortunately, this is what I've got at the moment. Hope it was still to you all's liking anyway._**

 ** _In other news, I've found an alternate theme song to this fic. It's AmaLee's English cover of Guren No Yumiya, which some of you might know from Attack on Titan. Seriously, look it up. It's on Youtube and Spotify. This translation of the song seems almost tailor made for RWBY, and considering Jaune now has the Archery skill, it fits even better. The title even means 'Crimson Bow and Arrow'. Let me know if you all agree that it fits._**

 ** _I think that's all for now. If you want to have a say in what I write, patrons get a vote for each dollar they donate on my Pat A Ron. That's why this was updated so quickly compared to my other stuff. It's dotcom /athanmortis. 'Survival?' isn't on the poll this month because I want to plot it out a bit, so it'll be back on next month. Feel free to donate and pick something else, if you want._**

 ** _Till next time._**


	10. Treasure Trove

Ruby and Yang sat together out on the Beacon Cliffs, the younger of the two leaning against her sister. A feeling of deep exhaustion permeated both girls' minds. It was the day after the memorial, and the two felt the need for some family time.

Yang let her head fall back against the tree she was sitting against, her eyes gazing at the swaying trees of the Emerald Forest as she held Ruby close.

The Arc family had left earlier that day, having spent the night at Beacon, getting to know Jaune's friends. Scroll numbers had been shared before the groups parted, with the Arcs promising RWBY and NPR any help and support they could offer once the students had graduated. The teens had promised to always be available to lend the Arcs a hand in return.

"...I'm thinking of pulling us out of the Vytal Festival, Yang…" Ruby said softly after a while sitting in silence.

"...Yeah, I kinda expected that." The blonde admitted. "We aren't in any shape to fight seriously. We still need to recover." She let out a breath. "Besides, it wouldn't feel right to compete if JNPR doesn't…"

"Well, nice to see you two have matured a bit, even if it isn't for the reasons I'd like." A male voice said behind them, making both girls jump up and turn in shock, their eyes resting on the two men standing before them.

"Dad! Uncle Qrow!" Ruby cried out with surprised happiness, racing forward with her semblance to slam into her father, wrapping her arms tightly around the man's waist.

Taiyang Xiao Long let out huff from the impact of his daughter hitting him, wrapping his arms around the girl as his brother-in-law chuckled at him. "Hey Ruby. I missed you." Ruby proceeded to hug her father harder.

Yang walked over as well, pulling her uncle into a hug, which was returned. She stepped back with a small smile as she looked at him. "What are you two doing here?"

Qrow shrugged. "I was on my way here to give Oz a report on my latest mission when he contacted me and Tai about what happened. He thought we might be able to help you two with coping."

"Sorry I wasn't here sooner." Taiyang said as he stroked Ruby's hair as she held him tighter. The light blonde man looked at the daughter who got his hair color. "How are you two doing?"

Yang shrugged. "Some days are better than others. Sometimes I wish Vomit Boy was still alive just so I could punch him in the face for putting us through all this."

Qrow smiled sardonically, bringing his flask to his lips. "I know the feeling, kiddo."

"Is this how you felt when mom died?" Ruby asked softly.

Taiyang gave his daughter a gentle squeeze. "Maybe. Our relationship with Summer was different than yours and this Jaune fellow's. And we'd known each other a lot longer. So it isn't exactly the same."

"I can't imagine it hurting more than it already does…" Ruby said, a slight whimper in her voice.

"I hope you never have to experience it, kiddo." Her father said with a small, sad smile. Then he pulled away from the girl. "Now then, why don't you and Yang introduce us to your friends? I'd like to see who you're hanging out with."

Ruby pulled back and nodded with a slight smile, taking her father's hand and leading the way to Beacon proper, Yang and Qrow following leisurely behind them, the blonde feeling her heart ease at the simple joy her sister took at having her family around her.

"I think she'll make it through this, Vomit Boy. Don't you worry." Yang said to herself with a small smile, hoping her friend was content wherever he was now.

* * *

Jaune was not having a good time of things. It was only about noon, by his estimation, and he'd already had to fight nearly a dozen high level Grimm as he tried to creep around the ancient city without being spotted.

It wasn't that he was a bad sneak, especially without his armor, though he'd never be able to beat Ren at it. It's just that the amount of Grimm in the city was much higher than he'd originally estimated.

He managed to avoid most fights by keeping himself calm as he avoided Beringels, Bouncy Balls, foxes and even an Imp. However, he inevitably got spotted at some point, and when he was the fight that ensued generally ended up attracting the attention of other Grimm, making things harder than they had any right to be.

It didn't help that he was fighting without any armor to protect him after having removed it to keep from drowning. He was using more aura taking what blows he couldn't avoid than he usually would, which was tiring him out faster.

Still, he was making progress. After leaving the house Sophia Sand's team had died in, Jaune began making his way to the temple he'd seen when he arrived. He reasoned that, as the most important building in the city (as far as he could tell, at least), it most likely had a cavern or passage that led to the outside world. If nothing else, it might have something he could use.

As he made his way through the city he saw some of the murals and carvings Sophia had mentioned in her journal. He stopped and studied them when he was able to do so without having to worry about being attacked, finding them very interesting. When he could he pulled Sophia's journal out of the box he kept strapped to his waist to consult it.

From what he could tell, not being an archeologist, the murals depicted various scenes, some from daily life, others from what could only be myths and stories. He quickly noted that there were no mentions of Grimm as he knew them, corroborating what Sophia had written. However, there was something else he eventually noticed was missing the more murals he saw.

There were no depictions of Dust. No crystals, no Dust woven clothing. Considering the fact that the people displayed were clearly shown manipulating the elements, such as fireballs being held in hands, the fact that they weren't showing the Dust required to do so was odd.

It was possible that what he was seeing was the effects of Semblances and not Dust, but it was still strange.

In any case, Jaune focused on making his way to the temple. The sun was starting to go down, and he wanted to reach it before night fell.

Carefully and as calmly as possible, the knight made his way through the streets of the ancient city, stepping lightly with his battered sneakers making little noise. He rotated his shoulder slightly to work the kinks out after the last fight where he'd hit a Boarbatusk badly, almost getting his sword wrenched out of his hand and his shoulder dislocated. As he did so he saw that he was only a couple of blocks from the stairs that led up to the temple. Sighing in relief he slowly made his way, being extra careful now that he was close to his objective.

Thankfully he reached the base of the stairway without incident and sat down to rest on one of the large steps, hiding himself in the shadows cast by one of the pillars that stood there like silent sentinels. Wishing he still had his canteen to slake his thirst he leaned against the cool stone and closed his eyes, feeling his aura slowly work on healing the various bruises he'd accumulated throughout the day of constant fighting.

Jaune was tired, both physically and mentally. He'd been in the Deathlands for a long time now, fighting almost non-stop the entire time, and it was taking its toll on him.

True, his skills were growing by leaps and bounds. Constant combat with high level foes will do that to you. However, it also chipped away at stamina and morale, the latter of which was very important when out in Grimm country. He was well aware of the importance of keeping his spirits up, especially after the brief time when he nearly lost himself to despair after he saw the bullhead flying overhead, leaving him behind. The fighting had been constant due to his dark emotions at the time.

Still, there was only so long one could go while having hope constantly torn away along with the stress of constant combat.

"I'm going to need therapy when I get out of here…" He muttered with a sigh, before his lips quirked upwards in a slight smile at what he had just said. _When,_ he'd said. Not _if, when._ That alone buoyed his spirits a bit, as it showed that he hadn't given up, even subconsciously.

Deciding that he'd rested enough, the blonde got up, stretched, and turned towards the stairs leading upward… only to freeze as he saw an Imp observing him from further up the staircase.

The humanoid Grimm stared at him, its skull like mask pointed directly at him, two long horns rising from the top of it. It twitched erratically, like a ghost in a Mistrali horror movie, and its fingers curled and uncurled as it prepared itself to attack as its digitigrade legs shifted to pounce.

Had this been a movie, Jaune was sure the music would have paused to give emphasis to the scene of two enemies encountering each other. The knight couldn't really appreciate the dramatic tension, however, focused as he was on not panicking.

Port had briefly mentioned Imp Grimm types during one of his stories. He didn't go into detail, stating that was a lecture for a later class. However, he had said it was an especially difficult Grimm to tackle solo due to its offensive capabilities. Now Jaune wished Port had decided to discuss those capabilities more in depth.

Jaune slowly reached down to draw Crocea Mors, trying to keep the Imp from attacking before he was ready. The Grimm tilted its ugly head as it watched the blonde reach for his weapon before it suddenly opened its mouth as widely as it would go while being 'sewed' shut by tendrils of black flesh, letting out an ear piercing shriek that made Jaune's hands fly to his ears as he was assaulted by the jarring cry, stumbling backwards in surprise. Then, before he could react, the Imp whipped its arm at him, the already lengthy limb elongating in mid flight to strike him, hitting him in the side and sending him flying with a cry.

Jaune crashed against one of the pillars and gasped from the impact as he dropped onto the stairs, coughing as he tried to regain his breath. He growled lowly as he slowly got up, hearing the Imp make its way closer to him. He looked up only to find the monster whipping its arm downwards to bash his head in. Jaune quickly rolled to the side, wincing when the Grimm's fist impacted the stone hard enough to blow chips off.

Hurriedly scrambling to his feet, Jaune drew his blade and ran at his opponent. He could see now why this Grimm was dangerous. With it's long reach it could keep enemies at distance, using its screech to paralyze them momentarily and get some hits in. Normally the best strategy would be to fall back and pelt it with ranged attacks, however he no longer had his bow, so his next best strategy was to get in close where it couldn't use its long arms to full effect, negating one of its advantages.

Unfortunately that was easier said than done. The Imp screeched again, making Jaune falter in spite of himself. He managed to avoid getting hit again, however, barely dodging another swing by his enemy. Once he'd recovered he resumed rushing the Grimm, sword glowing white as he prepared to cut the thing in half. What he wasn't expecting was for the Imp to suddenly leap backwards and up the stairs, granting itself the advantage again.

"Sunnova…" Jaune growled as he saw the Imp twitch its head as it observed him. He needed to pin the Grimm down somehow, or otherwise impair its movement. Remembering his hunting knife strapped to his boot, he reached down and drew it, holding it in the hand that clutched his shield. Then he rushed up at the Imp again.

The monster let out another screech once Jaune was in its range again, but he managed to power through it this time, expecting the aural assault. He quickly threw himself forward as the Imp whipped its arm at him, trying to crush him, and scrambled to his feet in order to keep going.

When he saw the Imp was about to leap away again, Jaune imbued his knife with aura and quickly threw it at the Grimm's right leg, praying that his gamble would work.

Apparently Lady Luck had decided to smile at him, as the knife sliced through quite a bit of the monster's leg, making it stumble just as it attempted to jump. It screeched again, this time in pain, and Jaune smiled as he leaped forward, glowing sword coming around as he let out a cry.

Seconds later, the Imp's head fell to the floor, it and the body beginning to disperse into smoke.

Jaune fell on his ass with a groan, sheathing Crocea Mors before clutching his side. His aura had protected him, but he'd still felt the impact, and he'd likely bruise. He was getting too exhausted, his aura getting too low, for it to be otherwise.

Jaune slowly made his way back into the shadows before laying down to rest, his eyes closing as he did his best to recover his strength before he continued.

He must have rested for about a half hour before he opened his eyes and got up with a small groan. As much as he just wanted to sleep for a few hours, he knew he had to keep moving. After making sure that there were no more unpleasant surprises, Jaune slowly continued making his way up the stairs to the temple proper. Once he reached it, he stopped and stared, his mouth hanging open slightly.

He was in a large room with three hallways branching off. Two altars stood at opposite ends of it, one made of obsidian, the other of gold. Upon them were statues made of the same materials, a slim obsidian man with what looked like ram's horns, and a muscular golden man with large antlers.

The rest of the main room of the temple drew the eye just as much, however. The walls were covered in carvings of mixed obsidian and gold showing many different scenes. It was here that Jaune had another shock, as one of the scenes displayed the first mention of Grimm he'd found. Carved Beowolves were shown to surround the ram horned man in what was unmistakably a deferential manner. The antlered man wasn't shown as having anything similar.

"Oh man, what I wouldn't give to have a working scroll right now. Oobleck is going to flip." He moved closer to the statues on the altars, studying them. "Why would they be worshipping a couple of faunus, though…?" He was confused, but he couldn't think of any reason why the humans of the city would. It wasn't Jaune being bigoted, he was just well aware that it didn't make sense considering what he knew about how faunus had been historically treated.

Seeing that he wasn't going to figure out anything more by studying the room, Jaune began to explore the rest of the temple, heading first into a hallway beside the golden statue.

Most of the rooms were empty, but after five minutes he stopped and stared in shock. "Holy shit…" He said softly.

The small room he found himself in held mounds of ancient gold coins scattered throughout it. From what he could tell they'd most likely been held in wooden boxes that had long since rotted away, leaving only the currency, which he could see had the image of a woman's head stamped on one side, and an eight pointed star on the other.

Jaune wasn't a greedy man. He hadn't decided to become a Huntsman, nor had he tried to date Weiss, for the money. That said, he'd be a complete fool not to take some of the treasure with him. However...

"Dammit, I don't have a bag to carry any of it in…" He muttered, dejected. It figured that with his luck he'd find a treasure like the one before him yet have no way to take it with him.

That was, of course, till he moved to leave the room and the empty quiver he still carried bumped against the doorway. His gaze shifted down to it before a smile slowly grew on his lips.

A few minutes later he was walking out of the room with a smile still on his face, his quiver full to the brim with gold coins, the opening stuffed and tied off with fabric from his hoodie, which was more than a bit ragged now, to keep any of it from spilling out as he fought. Satisfied with his haul, he continued exploring.

The rest of the rooms of the hallways he'd chosen to explore first were empty, though Jaune could see some remnants of whatever items had been kept within them. It wasn't surprising that most of what had been kept there had either rotted or rusted away. Once he was done in that section of the temple he made his way back to the main room before heading down the hallway beside the obsidian statue.

The rooms in this section of the temple had more to see. It was more like an armory, though each of the pieces of weapons and armor were on pedestals, seeming to be almost reverently positioned. Which wasn't the odd part. The odd part was that everything was intact.

Blades were still sharp and unsullied by rust. Armor was pristine and untouched by age or battle, even the leather straps appearing perfect. The wooden hafts of spears were as sturdy as they would have been after they had been finished, not a sign of rot on any of them. It was eerie. Jaune was well aware than none of those pieces should be there. Even the most cutting edge, dust reinforced weapons would have deteriorated to near nothingness with the apparent age of the city.

Ruby would go into a manic spree before collapsing in awe if she could see and examine these weapons.

Jaune paused in front of another piece of armor. It was a chestplate much like the one that he'd been forced to dump, except it was large enough to cover his entire torso while hugging it tightly and segmented in order to provide ease of movement. It was made of a metal alloy he didn't recognize which was silvery white, and as reflective as a mirror. Bronze and gold aesthetic accents covered the edges of it, adding to the look. Alongside it he saw that there were arm guards, bracers and greaves of a similar make.

He had seen several other pieces of armor as he'd walked through the rooms of the temple, but this was the first set that looked similar to what he was used to wearing. He considered it before smirking.

Ten minutes later, Jaune was shifting around, getting used to the feel of his new armor. He jumped around, twisted, turned, bent forwards and backwards, and anything else he could think of in order to make sure his movement wouldn't be impaired. Once he was satisfied he smiled, pleased that he finally had some sort of protection. Strapping Crocea Mors back to his side, he continued making his way through the rooms of the armory section.

It was when he entered the last armory room that he found his next prize. There were obviously no guns in the armory, but he did find bows, and he was drawn to a beautiful example in that room. It was a compound bow made of an unfamiliar type of wood which was a crimson red, reminding him of Ruby's cape. Even the bowstring was red, perfectly taut and firm.

Jaune picked the bow up, testing the weight. It was perfectly balanced, and lightweight without feeling fragile. He frowned as he considered taking it with him. Unfortunately he no longer had any arrows, and he hadn't seen any in the armory, so while he could take it with him on the off chance he'd find ammunition (a very unlikely scenario), in the end it would most likely be dead weight.

He sighed as he brought the bow up, pulling the string back to test it. It was too bad. The bow was perfect, and he definitely needed a ranged option now that his previous bow had been broken by that damned bug. Unfortunately it was of no actual use as it stood.

On a whim Jaune decided to channel his aura into the bow, wondering what effect it would have. He'd always imbued just his arrows with aura before, not the bow itself. He was surprised when a mass of swirling energy appeared between his fingers in the position he would have had an arrow. He was caught so off guard that he unwittingly released the string.

The arrow of energy shot forward at high speed, and it impacted against the wall of the room with a crack and a small burst of light. When the light faded, it showed a hole nearly half a foot deep into the stone wall.

Jaune stared in shock at what had happened before he looked down at the bow in his hands. He'd felt a small draw on his aura when that had happened, so it didn't take a genius to figure out what had just occurred. Quickly he brought the bow back up and pulled on the string before focusing once again, trying to recreate what he'd done before.

This time he paid more attention to what was happening when the arrow of energy appeared, ready to be fired. The swirling mass of light was two toned, half the usual white of his own aura, the other the crimson of the bow, the two colors swirling around each other.

Wanting to see if he could make the arrow disappear without having to fire it, he stopped feeding his aura into the bow. The arrow remained for a few seconds after he did so, but eventually the energy dissipated into nothingness.

Once again, Jaune stared at the bow in his hands. Then he smiled. "Yep, you're mine now." He let out an almost evil sounding cackle before coughing, embarrassed as he realized what he'd just done. Face burning slightly, he placed the bow in the holder that was attached to his quiver. It wasn't a perfect fit, as the holder was meant for a more modern bow, but it would do till he got his ass back to civilization.

Feeling much better about his chances now than when he'd first reached the temple, Jaune smiled as he made his way back to the main room and then through the last hallway, which rested between the two statues.

The path was long and dark, so he kept his hand on the wall to make sure he wouldn't slam into something. He could tell it sloped gently upwards, however, and that made him sure that he would be leaving the caves soon.

He felt a bit of remorse at leaving a wonder like the underground city so soon after finding it, and after having seen only a small part of what it had to offer. However, his priority was surviving and getting back to Beacon, so unfortunately his curiosity and sense of adventure would need to be put on hold.

With any luck he would return some day, this time with Oobleck and a battalion of soldiers and Huntsmen. The find was too big for that not to happen. And he'd feel much better about exploring the city if he wasn't doing so alone.

As he continued walking he heard the sound of a waterfall coming from up ahead, along with some sunlight that helped illuminate his way. He quickened his pace as the sound got louder and the light brighter till he emerged from the tunnel into another large, open topped cave.

It was a little under a hundred yards across, mostly circular. He was standing on a ledge above a pool of water which was being fed by a waterfall falling from above to his left, vegetation surrounding it. Hugging the wall to his right the ledge continued, encircling the opposite end of the cavern that the waterfall was in, reaching an opening opposite his position that led to the outside.

Jaune smiled, happy to once again be making progress. He quickly made his way along the ledge, heading for the exit. Unfortunately, as was typical of his luck, something stopped him halfway through.

A deep, groaning sound echoed from the pool below, and something shot up out of the depths, striking at him in order to splatter him all over the wall. He only barely managed to dive away from the attack, hearing the grunch of rock shattering as his attacker hit the wall behind him. He turned to see what new monster he'd have to deal with this time. "Oh… Fuck my life…"

He recognized the Grimm that had just attacked him. It was one he'd hoped to never see again. The last time he'd encountered it, it had taken the efforts of all of RWBY and JNPR combined to kill it.

He watched as the massive dark snake head, lined with jagged and sharp bone plating, moved away from the wall, shattered stone falling to the ground as it turned its head to glare at him. To make matters that much worse, seven more identical heads emerged from below, hissing ominously.

For a moment Jaune could only stare in disbelief. Then he let his head fall back to glare at the sky through the opening in the cave roof. "What the hell did I ever do to you!?" Then he scrambled to his feet and ran as another snake head launched itself at him, huge mouth open to swallow him whole.

With a constant chant of 'shit, shit, shit…' the blonde knight ran for the exit. If he could just make it outside, the Grimm would be unable to follow due to its size. Unfortunately the Orochi (a name Blake gave it from a story, since they never did remember to get the Grimm's actual name from Port) was smart enough to know what he was doing, and one of the heads moved to block the exit, hissing in challenge, waiting for its prey to keep moving towards it.

Jaune skidded to a halt, dismayed yet unsurprised. Immediately he deployed his shield, imbuing it with aura just as another snake head came around to slam into him. The shield repelled the attack thanks to its aura enhancement, the snake head being blown backwards like a giant had punched it in the nose. Unfortunately, Jaune was relatively lightweight in comparison, and was immediately sent flying into the wall. He grunted from the impact, though the damage was mitigated significantly thanks to his new armor.

His mind raced as he tried to think of how to get away from this thing. He knew that the likelihood of him being able to kill it was remote. Ruby had needed to have Crescent Rose's already significant stopping power enhanced by one of Weiss's glyphs in order to take out the thing's weak point, and before that they'd needed Blake and Yang to launch them into position above the Orochi.

The memory clicked in Jaune's mind. He needed to get above the monster in order to be able to even spot the thing's weak point. He looked up, seeing the edge of the opening above the cave. If he could get up there, he should have the vantage point he need.

How to kill it, though? He didn't have the sheer fire power Ruby wielded in Crescent Rose. His new bow had done a decent amount of damage to the wall of the temple when he'd first fired it by accident in the temple. Sure, it had taken a small amount of aura, but he doubted he could get in a kill shot through sheer volume of fire before the Orochi managed to take him out.

Well, if a small bit of aura didn't do the trick, what about a lot of it?

A large, slightly crazed smile appeared on Jaune's lips even as he dodged another attack by the huge Grimm. Plan made, Jaune got ready to implement it.

Oddly enough, it never occurred to him that he would be able to run away once he made it above, since the Orochi was unlikely to be able to follow. He was now entirely focused on killing the monster.

Seeing another head coming around to attack, Jaune waited before making an aura enhanced leap over it as it crashed against the ledge, making the stone burst into pieces. He landed on the snake's back and promptly began to run, if somewhat unsteadily. He almost fell off the Grimm and into the water below when the snake began to rise, but managed to avoid doing so. He saw another snake head coming from the side to attack and jumped at the last moment. The snake head passed underneath him, and he fell towards it shield first, the metal imbued with a large amount of aura. It discharged when it made contact with the Grimm, launching him high into the air. He was almost on the level of the roof of the cave now, about ten feet from the opening.

He looked down to see yet another snake head rising from below, mouth open to eat him. He swiftly twisted his body, altering his trajectory just slightly, enough that he could once again put his shield in the way, using some more aura to imbue it just as the monster's nose made impact. Jaune was once again launched upwards, the snake head being blown backwards with a hiss.

He was now above the rim of the opening, but he was not going to land on the roof. Hurriedly he sheathed Crocea Mors as he began to fall before reaching out. He just barely managed to grab hold of the edge with one hand, and he grunted as his weight almost made him let go. Nearly panicked, he forced scrambled up and over the edge just as another snake head snapped at his heels.

Jaune stayed on his hands and knees for a few moments, panting from the adrenaline of what he just did. Then he quickly got to his feet and unslung his bow. Looking down into the cavern he saw that the Orochi writhing as it tried to reach him, its heads snapping up at him. And in the middle of all the heads, he saw the glint of white that was the Grimm's weak point.

The Orochi was actually an amalgamation of multiple King Taijitus, which had somehow been fused into a single monster by another Grimm which Port had called a Meldling. Meldlings were weak on their own, but they were prioritized when spotted because of their ability of combining Grimm and increasing their power.

Seeing the Orochi start doing more than snapping ineffectually at him, its mass moving to the side in order to make it easier for some heads to reach higher, Jaune took aim at the glint of white that was the Meldling and drew the crimson bowstring back. Then he took a deep breath and focused, feeding aura into the bow.

Immediately an arrow of energy appeared, the same size as the ones he had first generated. But Jaune knew it wasn't enough. So he kept feeding aura into the bow, and to his gratification the arrow grew in size.

He kept feeding it power bit by bit. A fifth of his remaining aura went into it. Then a quarter. A third. Half.

The mixed white and red light had become blinding, the projectile now the size of his torso and shining so brightly that it was visible for miles. The very air hummed with power.

The Orochi could sense the power its prey now held at the ready, and it increased its attempts to reach the human. Unfortunately for it, it didn't do so in time.

"Swallow this, you son of a bitch!" Jaune roared as he released the bowstring. There was a whooshing sound, and the arrow made of Jaune's power shot forward. Then he cried out and fell onto his back as there was a flash of light and the sound of a thunderclap along with the rumbling of an explosion in the ground he was standing on.

It took a minute, but slowly Jaune's sight returned as he stared up into the sky. The spots that obscured his vision were replaced by clouds and blue sky. "Ow…" He coughed before slowly getting to his feet. He wanted to see what had happened, so he moved over to the edge of the opening. His eyes widened at what he saw.

The Orochi was gone. Not even the customary Grimm smoke remained. Not only that, but a vast majority of the cave had been smashed. Any vegetation that had been there disappeared, and even as he watched a chunk of rock dislodged from the ceiling and fell into the pool below with a splash.

Jaune stared for a long minute before he slowly began to laugh, the adrenaline leaving his system and the realization that he had survived yet again making him giddy. He moved back from the edge and sat down as his laughter turned almost hysterical, his form shaking from the force of his guffaws.

Once he finally calmed down he saw his bow laying nearby and moved to pick it up. Looking it over, awe in his eyes, a silly thought came to his mind. "Huh, guess it _is_ like the Legend of Hilda, huh?" That set him off again, and he burst into more riotous laughter.

Once he'd recovered his composure he looked back down at the crimson bow, a smile on his face. "You need a name!" He declared suddenly, the thought just striking him right then and there.

He'd never named his previous bow because it hadn't been his. As far as he was concerned, he was borrowing it from the man he'd taken it from. It had served him well, and he was grateful, but the weapon he now held in his hands felt like it was actually his.

Taking in its bright red wood, his smile widened as it reminded him of Ruby's cloak and Pyrrha's hair. That gave him the inspiration he needed.

"Good work, Vanquishing Thorn." He said with a soft smile. Then he stowed it away again and looked out over the trees and mountains of the Deathlands, feeling determination fill his heart.

It was time to get out.

* * *

 _ **This is a week (plus a day) late, and I want to apologize for that. Work issues, plus me just not feeling motivated for it, are to blame. Still, I promised that, if nothing else, I would upload my Patron requested chapter each month, and with this, I keep my promise.**_

 _ **So, this was a big moment in the story. Jaune found his new, more permanent gear. And he discovered something only Ozpin will recognize. He still has the journal, so he'll have something to wave in Oobleck's face to make the man leave him alone.**_

 _ **I hope you all liked the big fight at the end. The Orochi is a manga exclusive Grimm of dubious canonicity (I keep seeing conflicting reports when I look). It never got a name, nor did the small Grimm that made the King Taijitus fuse into one, but Blake mentions the story of an eight headed snake with a sword inside of it, so I can see them giving it the name if they couldn't find an official one.**_

 _ **Also, for those unaware, an Imp is the type of Grimm that fused with a Grimm Horse to form a Nuckalevee in Kuroyuri. Word of God states they can be encountered solo as well, though we've never seen it in the show.**_

 _ **The bow's name came from trying to think of something that stood for both Pyrrha and Ruby, who are the two romantic interests I have for Jaune in this story. 'Vanquish' came up as a synonym for victory when I looked, and Thorn is obvious. To Jaune, it's not because of romantic feelings (yet); Pyrrha is his partner and the person that believed in him even after his fake transcripts were revealed, and Ruby is his first friend at Beacon, and his fellow leader who has helped him become a better one as well.**_

 _ **In any case, the next chapter is going to be important. Something a lot of people have been wondering about will be happening in it. Care to take a guess of what and how?**_

 _ **As a friendly reminder, if you want a say in what I write each month, you can donate to my Pat A Ron, each dollar giving you one vote towards a fic on the monthly list I put up. It's at Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis.**_

 _ **Hope you all enjoyed. Till next time!**_


	11. BDH

Velvet stood on the wall surrounding the town of Gernsback, looking out at the forests and hills in the distance. She felt a chill travel up her spine as the trees swayed ominously, seeming to be taunting her. No matter how seemingly normal the vista was, she couldn't forget she was looking at the place where Jaune Arc died. The Deathlands.

Coco walked up to her, looking serious for once. "Thinking about him?"

Velvet nodded. "It's been weeks since the memorial, but being here, so close to where he died…"

Coco nodded turning to look out into the distance like her teammate was. "Yeah, I get it."

"I can't help thinking about how terrified he must have been." Velvet continued. "I know I wouldn't last five minutes if it'd happened to me."

Coco clapped her hand on the rabbit faunus' shoulder. "Don't think about it, Vel. Just focus on the here and now and not on things that aren't going to happen. Now come on, we're having a team meeting to decide patrols." She let Velvet go and made her way down the stairs, heading to the town inn. Velvet gave the swaying trees one last look before following.

When she arrived she found not just Team CFVY seated around a long table, but teams ABRN of Haven and NDGO of Shade, along with the local huntsman for the town. Taking her seat she observed as the discussion began.

"Alright, now that we're all here…" The leader of ABRN, Arslan Altan, began. "...We should see what we can find out about the Grimm we were sent here to deal with." She turned to the local, a man named Gris who was dressed in shades of grey, with armor the color of smoke and a sniper rifle strapped to his back.

Gris nodded. "For the passed five days the town's been menaced by a new type of Grimm I haven't encountered before. It's looks like a centipede, but it's bigger than a Goliath and heavily armored. I fired a full clip from my rifle into it and it didn't seem to notice. It doesn't help that whenever it attacks a small force of other Grimm join it, some of them of uncommon varieties. I'm assuming something lured the big one out of the Deathlands, which brought its attention to us."

Nebula Violette, the leader of NDGO, spoke up next. "When do most of the attacks take place?" She asked seriously with her arms folded.

"Sunset." Gris said instantly. "They like to hit us when visibility starts going down. We've set up some floodlights to compensate."

Coco was the one to speak this time. "Alright, I suggest six hour patrol shifts, with one person of each team per shift. Sound good to you?" She asked her fellow team leaders.

Arslan and Nebula glanced at each other before nodding. "Sounds good to me." The leader of ABRN said. "Anything else to discuss?"

"Yeah." Nadir Shiko, also from ABRN, spoke up. "Anybody know why exactly they sent three second year teams to deal with a single Grimm?"

"It's because of what happened to that Arc guy." Octavia Ember of NDGO explained, not noticing the grimaces on the Beacon team at her words. "We're pretty close to the Deathlands where he died, and they don't want to risk another student doing the same so close to the tournament in a couple of weeks."

Nadir made a noise of understanding before Fox spoke next. "Are we prepared to evacuate the town if necessary?"

Gis nodded. "Yeah, we can get bullheads here in fifteen minutes from a nearby base that's closer to Vale. It's a last resort, though. The citizens of this town are stubborn about leaving their homes. They have to be, to be so willing to live so close to the Deathlands. The Council took advantage to make this a forward base to stymie any Grimm incursions from it."

Coco looked around at the various teens as Gris' explanation finished. "Any more questions? No? Alright then, let's set up those shifts."

* * *

Two days later Gwen Darcy of NDGO was getting antsy as she walked the top of the wall surrounding the town during her noontime patrol. From her position she could see the townspeople going about their day as best they could while expecting another attack that evening.

As Gris had said the Grimm had attacked at sunset both days since the teams' arrival in Gernsback. They were repelled with relative ease thanks to the amount of firepower now in the town, but what was worrying was that the centipede Grimm the more veteran huntsman had told them about hadn't joined in on the attacks. That led them all to believe that it was an elder Grimm that was intelligent enough to use the more minor varieties of its kin to test the new defenders, learning about their capabilities with each attack. That was a worrying prospect, as the older, more intelligent Grimm were always extremely dangerous.

She looked back out into the woods as she walked passed one of the town guard who were patrolling as well. Gris wasn't the only defender of the town when the students weren't there. It had a sizable guard force, both full time and part time, and even the civilians all had some sort of weapons training.

"Well hi there, cutie. How did you get up here? Are you some kid's pet?" The guardsman said behind her. Gwen turned to see what he was talking about, finding him kneeling in front of an adorable little black bunny rabbit. She squeed internally, but her elation at the cute animal died a quick, ugly death when she took it in more fully, seeing the large for its size antlers on its head, the red eyes, and the small flecks of white against the black that she realized after a moment were bone. The black haired girl paled and cried out as throwing knives appeared between her fingers. "Jackelope!"

The guardsman looked up at her in confusion, not seeing the adorable little bunny suddenly open its mouth horrifyingly widely into a circle, two sets of jagged, sharp teeth lining the blackness beginning to whirl like saws. It jumped at the guardsman, who turned at the motion just in time to see his death approach, the Jackelope's mouth clamping onto his face and turning it into a gory, ruined mess, blood spraying in a fine mist along with shards of bone. He didn't even get a chance to scream.

Gwen immediately launched a trio of knives at the Grimm, which was still clamped onto unfortunate guard and was thus unable to avoid the attack. It died quickly when one of the weapons hit it right in the eye, falling off its victim, letting the girl see the ruin that was once a man's face.

She managed to force down her bile at the sight when she heard the sounds of gunfire and people screaming in fear and pain. She turned to see multiple Jackelopes attacking, using their prodigious jumping ability to get to the defenders on top of the walls. Their small size and agility meant that most of the defenders were having a large amount of trouble taking them out. As she watched, Yatsuhashi brought his massive blade down on one, but it scampered out of the way and all he did was smash the stone of the wall.

The town alarm began to sound as people hurried into the shelters and the students rushed to aid in the defense, not having expected another attack to happen before sunset. More than one person there cursed themselves for becoming complacent in the routine and letting the Grimm catch them with their pants down.

Gwen turned when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye, seeing a lot of Grimm leaving the forest to join the attack, more than the defenders had faced in any of the other assaults. Another group of knives appeared in Gwen's hands, prompting her to begin throwing them at the oncoming Grimm. She was forced to dodge away when fox like Grimm, Kitsunes, she remembered, began to spit fire up at her and the other defenders in order to cover the advance of the other attackers.

Several squat, round Grimm jumped up onto the wall, joining the Jackelopes in harassing the defenders with their massive claws. One of them landed on a guardswoman that had just dodged one of the deadly bunnies. The crunch of broken bones as her torso was compressed down into her lower body was surprisingly loud as she was squashed onto the floor, the stone of the fortification cracking from the impact.

Gwen took advantage of her position on the high ground to rain knives down on the Grimm that were now running about the town. She could see that Coco had the same idea, jumping onto a roof and deploying her gatling gun, mowing down the larger enemies, especially the thankfully small number of Nevermores and Griffons that were attacking from the air..

The fighting continued for what seemed like hours but was likely about ten minutes, with more and more defenders falling to the Grimm, especially the small, speedy Jackelopes. The students were running low on aura, and Gris was debating with Arslan whether to call for an evacuation when the gates of the town were busted down by the massive Grimm centipede Gris had warned them about, its blade-like legs digging deep into the dirt as it entered the town, the varieties of Grimm that hadn't been able to get over the walls following behind it. Everybody knew that the fight had just gotten harder for the defenders.

The centipede rampaged unchecked through the town, taking out anybody that stood in its way till Gris intercepted it, his sniper rifle shifting into a double bladed staff as he worked to hold the monster at bay in order to give his comrades time to deal with the other enemies. Coco tried to bring her gun to bear on the thing, hoping her armor piercing ammo would do the trick, however she was kept from acquiring a shot by various other Grimm attacking her, prompting her to shift the gun into its handbag form to fight them off in hand to hand.

Velvet had deployed her own weapon, becoming a true terror on the battlefield, something NDGO and ABRN wouldn't have believed of the timid bunny girl without seeing it for themselves. More than one of them hoped they wouldn't face her in the tournament, not sure they'd be able to win as they watched her shift between numerous hard light weapons as she tore through the Grimm, anything that got near her dying a swift death, even the lumbering Ursa Majors that had joined in the assault.

Gwen was doing her best to keep from being overrun along with a couple of guardsmen when she spotted the centipede making its way towards her, having launched Gris halfway across the town with a whack of its tail. She was already low on aura thanks to one of the squat creatures attacking her from behind before she could riddle it with knives, so she wasn't sure she'd be able to take a hit from something with that kind of strength. Unfortunately it didn't seem she was going to have time to get away. "Brace yourselves!" She called to the guardsmen with her.

The massive Grimm slammed into the wall at their feet, the stone giving way and making them fall down to the ground in a shower of debris. One of the guardsmen ended up getting his arm broken by falling rubble, and Gwen grunted when she felt her aura shatter from the impact with the ground, unable to land on her feet due to the debris falling on her as well.

The Grimm reared up over them preparing to strike. Gwen absently noticed as she looked up at it that part of its jaw was missing, having been lost in a previous fight, most likely. Then she was force to scramble away as it lunged forward with several of its bladed legs preparing to strike. One of the guardsmen, dazed from the fall, wasn't able to get out of the way in time, and died with a gurgle as several massive bladed limbs stabbed into him. The other guardsman managed to barely avoid the attack despite his broken arm, but Gwen received a nasty cut on her leg below her armored skirt despite avoiding most of the attack.

She tried to get away, doing her best to ignore the pain in her leg. She heard someone, she thought it must be Dew, shouting her name, and looked up to find the centipede about to lunge again, its gaze fixed squarely on her. She heard some of the other students try to reach her, but from the sounds of it they were too far away. She closed her eyes in fear, a tear falling from her eye as she prepared to die. She heard the centipede attack with a shriek, followed by a deep thudding sound and a flash of light she could discern even with her eyes closed.

After several moments of not dying, along with the slight shaking in the ground and the sound of something huge crashing to the ground, Gwen hesitantly opened her eyes, blinking up at what she saw.

A man stood in front of her, a heater shield held up in front of him, having blocked the centipede that she could now see was writhing on its back a small distance away from her. He looked dirty and dishevelled, his pants missing a leg below the knee and both sleeves of his black hoodie ripped away at different lengths. His mostly white armor was almost pristine, however, and he had a quiver without arrows along with a crimson bow strapped to his back. The hand not holding his shield had a sword clasped in a tight grip.

The man turned to look at her. He had deep blue eyes partly hidden by long, shaggy blonde hair that was almost reaching his shoulders, and a short beard on his face. He smiled, looking unbelievably happy to see her, and she couldn't help but blush. "You okay?"

She began to nod, but winced when she moved her leg and felt the pain of her wound. The man looked down at her wounded leg and dropped to his knees beside her, setting his sword and shield aside to rest his hands on her leg. Gwen blushed more heavily. "Wha-?"

"Relax." He said, still smiling, and began to glow white. Gwen watched in awe as the glow extended to her leg and her wound began to close. Soon there wasn't even a scar left, leaving only her ripped legging to show where she'd been injured.

The blonde sighed in relief as the glow faded and Gwen began testing her leg's mobility. "Good, you didn't explode."

His patient's head snapped up to look at him. "What!? That was a possibility!?"

He winced. "W-well, I've never used my semblance on another person before…" He said, laughing hesitantly, shattering the cool image he'd built up by his timely save. Then his face became serious. "I pumped some extra aura in you to give you a boost. You should be good to continue fighting if you're careful." He turned his head when the centipede finally righted itself and screeched at him, a glare on his face. "I've got some unfinished business to take care of." He picked up his weapons and stood up, looking at the Grimm fearlessly.

"Remember me, asshole!?" He said, walking towards the monster, weapons at the ready. It screeched at him again. "You caused me a lot of trouble, you ugly son of a bitch. I'll be taking it out of your hide!" The Grimm responded by rushing the Huntsman, who raised his glowing shield to block the armored leg that was coming down to rip into him. The leg rebounded with a deep gonging sound and a small flash of light, telling Gwen what had happened before, and he took advantage to sash at its face, leaving a gash in its bone mask. "I'm taking more than your jaw this time, you bastard." The blonde snarled.

"Holy hell, who is that?" Reese Chloris of ABRN asked as she rode up to Gwen on her hoverboard. "He's badass."

"That's Jaune…" Yatsuhashi said as he hopped down from atop the wall, his large sword resting against his shoulder. There was disbelief in his voice, the normally calm young man not masking his shock. It took the two girls a moment, but then they realized why.

"No way…" Reese said. "You mean the guy that we had that memorial for? The guy who got dropped in the middle of the Deathlands months ago?"

Gwen stared at the blonde who had saved her as he dodged another of the centipede's blades, slashing at it with his glowing sword as it passed, cutting the leg off, slicing through the bone plating with ease. "Guess he's not dead." She said dumbly.

Yatsuhashi turned and brought his sword around to cut the Jackelope that was leaping at him in two. "We need to focus back on the battle. There are still many enemies left." He moved to help the guardsman with a broken arm up to lead him to the town doctor's office, which was their triage center.

The girls nodded and threw themselves back into the fight after one last look at Jaune.

Jaune growled as his 'old friend' skittered backwards from a swipe that would have taken an eye or three. It had learned to avoid his sword when it glowed, being down two limbs and having several gashes in its bone armor to show why that was a good idea.

He could try to overcharge his bow like he had with the Orochi and a few other Grimm in the weeks since, but the Grimm wouldn't allow him the time. Once again he reminded himself that the bow was a situational weapon, no matter how much he'd like to simply annihilate all his enemies with a single enormous blast of aura.

The centipede seemed to become annoyed, and it planted some of its front legs into the ground as it twisted. Recognizing what was coming, Jaune jumped over the tail as it whipped by, slamming into one of the houses lining the small park they were fighting in and caving the wall in.

Jaune took advantage of the Grimm's position to rush in with his sword at the ready, his shield leading the way. The monster screeched as it began swinging its tail back around, but Jaune slid underneath it, feeling the wind of the centipede's huge body passing over him ruffle his hair. He immediately used his crouching position to launch himself forward, jumping at his enemy's face, Crocea Mors, once again glowing white and ready to stab into it.

The Grimm let out an ear piercing screech as the sword slammed into one of its remaining eyes to the hilt. It reared back, taking Jaune, who kept a tight grip on his sword, with it. Once the Grimm had reached its apex Jaune quickly planted his feet on the thing's face and jumped up with all his aura assisted might. The was a brief flash from the back of his armor, after which he gained even more height, now higher than the roofs of the houses around him. Crocea Mors glowed brightly once again, seeming to lengthen, as Jaune glared down at the centipede, which was looking up at him with its few remaining eyes. As he began to drop there was another small flash of light from the back of his armor, which made him fall faster. The monster, unprepared for his increase in speed, couldn't react in time.

Jaune yelled with effort and more than a bit of vindication as he swung his sword down using every bit of his muscle strength, weight and momentum. The Grimm was sliced in half down the middle, its heavy bone plating only slightly slowing him down. The blonde knight landed heavily in a crouch as the enemy that had caused him so much trouble and no small amount of grief died, dissipating into black smoke.

Bolin Hori of ABRN approached Jaune, eyes wide and staff held limply in his hand. "Holy shit, that was bad ass."

Jaune smiled slightly, shrugging. "He pissed me off."

The black haired young man shook his head, still in awe. "Well, I'm not complaining. We'd probably be pretty screwed if it hadn't."

Jaune sheathed Crocea Mors and unslung his bow. "There's still a lot of Grimm to kill. After that, I'm giving the first person I see a hug." The he drew the string of his bow back and shot a Bouncy Ball in the head, dropping it, and launched himself into battle.

Boling blinked but ended up shrugging, getting back into the fight as well.

The battle lasted another ten minutes, but the death of the centipede had given the defenders a second wind and taken a powerful weapon away from the Grimm's ranks. It still wasn't easy, but eventually they were victorious.

As the townspeople emerged from the shelters and surveyed the damage, Jaune stood and simply savored being around other people. It was a heady feeling, and part of him couldn't believe it was happening. He kept expecting to wake up in a tree, hearing the movements of the Grimm as they hunted for him, safety still out of reach.

"Jaune?" He heard someone ask hesitantly, and he turned to see CFVY approaching, all of them staring at him. Velvet had been the one who'd spoken, her pretty brown eyes wide as she looked at him like he would disappear at any moment.

Jaune slowly walked towards his fellow Beacon students, none of them saying anything further. He stopped in front of Velvet and reached up with a shaking hand to touch her face. The bunny girl blushed heavily. "Wha-?" She cut herself off when she saw tears appear in Jaune's eyes before he suddenly wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly.

Velvet stood very still, eyes wide and face crimson. Her blush faded when she heard what he was saying. "You're real. You're _real._ " Her look of shock faded into a sad smile as she hugged him back.

"Yes Jaune, I'm real. You made it. You're safe." She murmured soothingly. Coco stepped beside them and placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder, prompting him to look at her, and she gave him a smile.

It started as a giggle, then a chuckle, and soon Jaune was laughing with happiness as he pulled Coco into the hug, the sound of him venting his relief contagious and prompting the other students to laugh as well, all of them happy to have a friend back.

* * *

Ozpin sipped his coffee as he stood near one of Beacon's landing pads, a small smile on his face as he watched a dot on the horizon get bigger. Students were milling about nearby, getting ready to go out into Vale to relax and do some shopping, but they all kept a respectful distance from him.

He turned his head when Glynda and Ironwood approached and stopped at either side of him. The headmistress was the first to speak. "Why did you call us here, Ozpin? Has something happened?"

Ozpin took another sip before responding. "I received a call from Ms. Adel not that long ago. The town of Gernsback was attacked by a large force of Grimm, including an elder of a large new breed that was extremely dangerous, likely having come out of the Deathlands."

Ironwood's eyes widened before narrowing. "I'll have a battleship ready to fly to Gernsback and assist with repelling the attack in a few minutes." He pulled his scroll out of his pocket, ready to bark out orders, when Ozpin held up a hand.

"The attack has been repelled. There were losses, though thankfully none from the students, primarily due to the Jackelopes that were part of the attack." Both Glynda and Ironwood shuddered. Jackelopes were some of the absolute worst Grimm to fight. "However, one of the defenders managed to kill the elder Grimm, which allowed them to hold the town."

"That's good." Glynda said with relief as a bullhead began to land. "Though I don't understand why you needed our presence here if the issue is resolved."

Ozpin simply smiled before turning to an approaching group of students. "Thank you for coming so promptly."

Teams RWBY and NPR shuffled slightly awkwardly before Ruby spoke up. "Um, why did you want us to come to the landing pad, Professor?"

The headmaster simply turned to look at the bullhead as the door open, prompting the others there to do so the same. They saw teams ABRN and NDGO hop out of the aircraft, followed by team CFVY. It was who jumped out after them that made eyes go wide and jaws drop.

Jaune Arc hopped out of the bullhead, looking around with wide eyes that were moist with happy tears. His gaze travelled from Beacon's tower down along the grounds, to rest on the teachers and his friends.

"It can't be…" Glynda gasped, a hand over her mouth in shock.

"...Jaune?" Ruby croaked out, voice thick with hesitant hope.

Pyrrha was the first to move. She began to run towards Jaune, tears streaming from her eyes. She was quickly overtaken by a rushing blur of rose petals once Ruby got over her shock. The little reaper slammed into Jaune, who almost fell to the ground from the impact. The girl was crying with happiness, tears trailing down her cheeks as she hugged him. She was soon joined by Pyrrha, who also threw her arms around Jaune and held him tight, tears trailing down her own eyes as she sobbed happily.

The rest of Jaune's friends rushed over as well, Nora enthusiastically joining the hug as the others stood around the blonde, shock and disbelief in their eyes, along with more than a bit of joy.

All around the landing pad, people stared. Many recognized what was going on, and shock spread throughout the student body as the news spread.

Jaune, for his part, laughed as he held two of the most important girls in his life tightly, feeling such elation he thought he was going to burst. He did it.

He was home.

* * *

 _ **So, we have finally reached the point of the story where Jaune returns home, triumphant. I've been looking forward to this chapter, and was really hoping it would be voted on so I could write it asap. Happy to see it was.**_

 _ **In any case, Jaune is back home. Now he needs to deal with everything that comes after. His life is no longer in danger (for the moment), but that doesn't mean things are suddenly going to be easy.**_

 _ **The Jackelopes… Well, I just wanted to make a bunny Grimm in honor of my best friend, who always has an online avatar of a pissed off or malevolent looking bunny picture. For she is the Grimm Bunny, and you shall fear her.**_

 _ **Anyway, I asked her what she wanted them to be, and she said 'Jackelopes'. So that's what I went with. Her main request is that they look utterly harmless yet be one of, if not the, most dangerous and horrifying thing on the battlefield. I hope I managed to do so.**_

 _ **Next chapter will be mostly talking, with Jaune explaining things and the others' reactions.**_

 _ **I can't think of anything else to say at the moment. I hope you all enjoyed. Don't forget about my Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis, and please review.**_

 _ **Till next time.**_


	12. Golden Reunions

It took several minutes of tears and laughter before Jaune was finally able to speak, throat choked up with emotion. "Hey guys. I'm home…"

"Welcome home, Jaune." Ren said warmly, his hand on the blonde's shoulder.

Everybody finally pulled away, sniffling and wiping their eyes, but beaming at the returned friend. "How did you get back, Jaune?" Ruby asked as she smiled so widely it was starting to be painful.

"I would like to know as well." Ozpin said as he approached with a smile of his own.

Jaune nodded to the headmaster. "It's good to see you, sir. I'd be happy to tell you guys all about it, but…" He trailed off as his stomach let out a ferocious growl, actually making his friends jump back in surprise. He scratched the back of his head, chuckling sheepishly. "I would seriously kill a goliath with my bare hands for a pizza, sir."

Ozpin chuckled, amused. "I think that can be arranged. Let's head to the cafeteria and get you some food. I don't imagine you've been eating all that well out in the wilds."

Jaune shrugged as he began walking alongside the headmaster, his friends following behind, ignoring the stares of all the other students. "I made do. I've become a fair hand at hunting and fishing. I didn't exactly know what plants and herbs would be good for seasoning though, so my meals were pretty bland."

Ozpin nodded in understanding as Glynda and Ironwood walked beside him, their eyes on the blonde. "In that case I can see why you would be anxious for something more interesting."

"Are you alright, Mister Arc?" Glynda suddenly asked, finally breaking out of her shock, her eyes roaming along his form, searching for any injuries. "Should we perhaps stop by the infirmary first to give you a checkup?"

"I'd rather do that after I eat, Professor." Jaune said anxiously.

"He seems to be in good health, Glynda." Ironwood said soothingly. "Nothing a bath and a change of clothes couldn't help, I imagine."

Jaune's eyes glazed over. "Oh man, a hot bath sounds amazing…"

"Food first, Vomit Boy." Yang said with a smile and a pat on the back. "Your stomach sounded like an angry Ursa Major."

He chuckled, but Ruby spoke up before he could respond. "Ooh, what's this, Jaune?" She reached for his bow without thinking, running her fingers along the smooth wood.

"Figures that's what you would focus on." He said with another chuckle before unslinging his bow, holding it out to her. "This is Vanquishing Thorn. It's helped me out a lot ever since I found it. I'd be pretty damn dead if it weren't for this."

Ruby studied the weapon as the others watched, turning it dexterously in her hands, testing the weight and drawing the string experimentally. "This is an excellent bow." She finally proclaimed. "Pretty simple, though. I mean, it's an old fashioned wooden bow. No mechashifting, obviously or anything else, no slots for dust. I'm guessing any special features were in the arrows." She glanced at the empty seeming quiver on his back. "I'm guessing you're out of them?"

Jaune plucked the bow from her hands with a smile of amusement. "Yep. What can I say, Rubes? I have an appreciation of the classics."

"Where'd you get it?" Nora asked with interest, her voice more chipper and excited than anybody had heard her in months, which brought a smile to Ren's face.

Jaune was about to answer when he was once again interrupted. "Oh. My. Goodness." Suddenly the blonde was face to face with Oobleck, who was peering at him uncomfortably closely. "Mister Arc, is that really you?"

Jaune leaned back, trying to get away from the hyperactive teacher, spotting Port standing nearby, his own eyebrows raised in shock. "Uh, yeah."

"This… This… This is UNPRECEDENTED!" The green haired man exclaimed. "There has never been a known survivor of the Deathlands! Especially not with how deep you had gone, and how long you were there!" The doctor was practically vibrating with excitement. Or was it just the caffeine? "Mister Arc, you must tell me everything you saw in there!"

"Especially the Grimm you fought, my boy." Port added in, looking just as interested, though for different reasons. "We saw some interesting varieties we hadn't encountered before when we went to search for you, so I am very interested in your own experiences."

Jaune glanced from Port to Oobleck. "Wait, you went out looking for me?"

"Every day for several weeks, a group of volunteers among the staff, along with a detachment of my mechs, went out and searched for you during daylight hours for as long as possible." Ironwood explained. "Unfortunately they obviously didn't find you before the council shut the search down."

"Oh…" Jaune said. "Then the bullhead I saw fly over my head that one time must have been yours."

Everyone blinked. "Wait, you saw the bullhead? It was that close?" Glynda asked in disbelief.

Jaune smiled sourly. "I frantically climbed a tree so you could see me, but I didn't make it. I had to watch it fly away, not noticing me scream for it." He let out a slow breath at the memory. "I had to fight off a lot of Grimm after that…"

They all knew what he meant by that, and Pyrrha and Ruby quickly hugged him again. After a few moments of silence Oobleck cleared his throat. "Yes, well, I would be interested in hearing about your experiences, young man."

"Let's get Mister Arc to the cafeteria as we'd intended, and then we can ask him some questions." Ozpin said, and everybody nodded before continuing on their way.

By the time they'd reached the cafeteria they had gathered a large crowd which was peering at Jaune with shock and curiosity. Said blonde had finally become aware of the attention and felt a bit awkward and self-conscious. Upon noticing his reaction to the stares, his friends quickly gathered around him, shielding him from view. Of course, all of that was forgotten when Jaune sat down and a large meat lovers pizza was set in front of him.

"Damn, look at him go…" Yang said with an impressed look on her face as her fellow blonde finished off a slice in what seemed to be three bites, still blushing slightly from when Jaune had moaned in what seemed to be an almost orgasmic bliss at the first bite.

"I'm surprised you aren't commenting on his manners, Weiss." Blake said as half the pizza disappeared in less than three minutes.

"He's earned the right to behave as he wants for the moment." Weiss murmured quietly as she watched, the heiress having stayed silent since the moment they'd first laid eyes on Jaune, simply watching him. She smiled weakly when Ruby patted her back, understanding how much of a relief this must be for the white haired girl.

Finally Jaune sat back with a content sigh, sipping on the soda he'd been given with his meal. "Oh man, I never thought pizza could taste so good…"

Glynda cleared her throat. "Well, now that you've been fed, Mister Arc, I believe we would all be interested in your responses to our questions."

He looked up at the strict teacher before setting his drink aside and nodding. "Sure thing, Professor. Just one thing, first. Weiss?"

Said girl jumped slightly at suddenly being addressed before stepping forward. "Yes, Jaune?" She asked softly.

Jaune raised an eyebrow at her strangely passive behaviour but shrugged it off and stood up, taking off his quiver and setting his bow aside. "I was hoping you could help me deal with this, since you're probably the best person I know to do it."

"Deal with what?" She asked, confused.

Jaune smiled before turning his quiver over, making everybody gasp as a pile of gold coins was dumped onto the cafeteria table, the tinkling of the metal landing sounding incredibly loud in the stunned silent room.

Weiss picked a coin up with a shaking hand and wide eyes, bringing it up to her face and rubbing its surface with a thumb. Then her gaze turned back to Jaune, who had an eyebrow raised as he waited for the verdict. "This is real gold…" She said faintly.

The cafeteria erupted into discussion, everybody talking to each other over the fact that Jaune Arc not only returned from the Deathlands, but he did so bearing a bunch of extremely valuable treasure with him.

"Holy crap!" Nora cackled, throwing an arm around Jaune's shoulders as her eyes took in her leader's loot. "Jaune, you're ritch!"

Jaune picked up some coins before handing one to Nora, followed by the rest of JNPR and RWBY. "Seems so. Here, have some."

"Are you sure, Jaune?" Ren asked as he studied his coin.

Jaune shrugged. "A few coins less won't hurt me much. I'd much rather share with my friends."

"Each one of these is worth a considerable amount of money." Weiss warned.

"Likely more than you realize, Miss Schnee." Oobleck said as he picked a coin up as well, studying it. "I don't recognize the markings and images. That makes them more valuable than for just their gold content. Collectors, museums and researchers would pay quite a bit for them."

"Really?" Jaune cocked his head to the side. "Huh, should have realized that, considering where I found them." He nodded to the coin in Oobleck's hand. "Keep it, sir. I'm sure it's worth more to you than it does me."

The doctor smiled. "Many thanks, young man. Where _did_ you find them?"

"I think we all want to know." Pyrrha said from where she sat as close to Jaune as possible. "What happened to you in the Deathlands, Jaune?"

Jaune sat back down and sipped his soda again before beginning his tale. "Well, I was knocked out when I hit the ground after falling out of the bullhead. After checking and seeing that my scroll was cracked in two, I just picked a direction and started walking, thankfully without being attacked immediately…" He continued describing what had happened, including the centipede Grimm that had passed underneath his sleeping place, everybody listening intently without interrupting.

It was when he reached the point that he found the remains of one of the people who had died in the Deathlands that he was interrupted. "You didn't find any identification, Mister Arc?" Ozpin asked intently.

Jaune shook his head. "No. His scroll was out of power, and like a moron I didn't consider bringing it with me. I took his bow and a bag of supplies with me when I left him, though. This quiver was actually his. If I describe his weapon, could you find it in the database? I'd like to talk to any next of kin."

Ozpin nodded agreeably as Glynda prepared her scroll to take notes on the weapon. "That could work, yes. I assume that means that the bow you currently possess is not the one you got from that unfortunate hunter?"

Jaune shook his head. "No, I found this one a while later after a Grimm broke that one into pieces." He bared his teeth, eyes glinting. "I made sure that bastard paid for it, though." Jaune's friends' eyebrows rose at the ferally pleased look on his face. They weren't used to seeing such a thing on him, and it made them wonder how much his experiences had changed him.

Glynda dutifully inputted the details of the weapon Jaune was describing into the Hunter database, beginning the search once it was done. Within moments they got a result. She showed them the image of a man in his thirties with black hair and pale green eyes, his outfit similar to what Jaune remembered remaining on the bones, with plenty of purple and black on it, the bow Jaune had used in his hands

"That's him." Jaune said with a nod. "Who was he?"

"Morado Malachite. Went missing twelve years ago. Next of kin are his nieces, Melanie and Miltia." She swiped the screen to show twin girls in white and red outfits.

"I know them." Yang said when she saw the pictures. "They work as bouncers in a club in downtown Vale."

"Think you can introduce me?" Jaune asked.

The busty blonde nodded. "Sure. Just let me know when."

"So what happened after that, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, hand gently resting on her partner's arm, as though afraid he wasn't real.

Jaune continued talking about his attempts to escape the Deathlands to his riveted audience, describing the Grimm he'd encountered, some of which didn't have names because they hadn't been encountered before. Occasionally he'd be asked a question by Port about a specific type, and he'd answer as best he could.

When he reached the point where the centipede (or as he'd taken to calling it during his story, 'that bastard') broke his bow and sent him tumbling into the river which carried him away right when he was about to make it to civilization, someone interrupted him. "You've gotta be lying." Everybody turned to look at Nolan Porfirio of Team BRNZ of Shade, who had his arms crossed and was staring at Jaune.

Said blonde raised an eyebrow, not seeming to notice the fact that his friends were glaring at Nolan. "Really? Why?"

Ignoring his team leader hissing for him to shut the hell up, Nolan continued. "It sounds too much like some shitty survival movie. The hero is set back right when he was about to succeed? It's such a trope! I bet there wasn't even a giant centipede Grimm and you just tripped into the water, waded out, and decided it would be a cool story to tell when you got back."

Jaune stared at Nolan silently for a moment even as the crowd began to murmur, though they all quickly went silent when he began to speak, more than a bit angry. "Why the hell would I need to come up with stuff to make myself cooler? I just walked out of the Deathlands, motherfucker. I'm aware enough to know that something like that is going to give me more cred than I'll ever know what to do with, even if I never said anything about what happened in there." Jaune stood up, leaning on the table, blue eyes narrowed menacingly, making Nolan back up as he began to realize he'd fucked up. "And where do you think the gold came from? Or the bow? Or this?" He reached into the small safebox at his side, pulling out an old, leather bound journal.

"What is that, Mister Arc?" Oobleck asked with interest, Ozpin looking curious as well.

"This is the journal of Sophia Sand, a researcher and explorer who was given a grant by the King of Vale almost a decade before the Great War to investigate the Deathlands and find out why they're so dangerous." Jaune said to the suddenly salivating history teacher. "It details everything she saw before she was killed by the Grimm infesting her final resting place."

Oobleck reached out with a shaking hand. "May I?"

Jaune handed the journal over. "Of course, Professor. I made a promise to her that she'd be remembered."

"Doctor…" Oobleck said absently as he gingerly opened the book to the first page, studying it intensely.

"He wasn't lying about the giant centipede either, by the way." Coco said from where she'd been sitting nearby with her team, listening to everything while flipping through a fashion magazine. "It attacked Gernsback, and we would have lost the town if Jaune hadn't killed it " She tilted her shades down and stared hard at Nolan. "Single handedly, by the way..."

Nolan glanced from Jaune to Coco and back before swallowing and retreating into the crowd, his female teammate, May Zedong, silently berating him for being a dumbass.

"So, where did you find that journal and the rest of your spoils, Mister Arc?" Ozpin asked with interest, making Oobleck finally look up from the journal with an intense look on his face.

"You aren't going to believe me." Jaune warned.

Ozpin's lips quirked in a smile. "You'd be shocked at the things I'm willing to believe, Mister Arc."

"The river carried my unconscious body downstream and into a cave, where I wound up on the shore of it. When I explored it after I woke up, I found myself in an ancient underground city." Jaune said simply.

Everybody stared, stunned silent. "No, really, where?" Yang asked.

Jaune motioned to Oobleck. "It's detailed in Sophia's journal. She made sketches of everything she saw. It should be near the end."

The doctor quickly yet carefully searched the pages till he found one with a sketch of an underground city followed by her observations. He looked up at Ozpin. "He's telling the truth."

Everybody began whispering again while Ozpin stared hard at Jaune, suddenly much more focused. "What else did you find in this place, Mister Arc?"

Jaune began to describe the city, talking about the amazingly intact buildings, the many carvings, the temple, its armory (which made Ruby squeal) and the treasure room that had a lot more coins than the amount he grabbed (which made more than one person _very_ interested).

"I was surprised that the temple was set up to worship a couple of faunus." He said at the end of his description. "I mean, that wasn't common back in the old days, was it?"

Ozpin didn't let on, but he felt like he couldn't breathe for a moment. Finally he managed draw some air. "No, not really. Why do you think they were worshipping faunus?"

Jaune became acutely aware of the way Blake and many other faunus students were watching him. "Well, there were statues of two on them on altars. One was a man made of gold with large antlers, the other was an obsidian man with rams' horns."

Ozpin brought his ever present coffee mug, taking a sip to wet his suddenly dry throat. "I see…"

"That's amazing!" Oobleck cried, pulling the coin Jaune had gifted him out of his pocket. "So this was the official coinage of an ancient city, lost to time, which may have actually had a legitimate case of faunus worship!" He suddenly zoomed in front of Jaune, leaning in and making the blonde lean back in surprise at the closeness. "Young man, I'm asking, no, I'm _begging_ you, collaborate with me on a paper about your findings to submit to academia. This is incredibly exciting information, and it deserves to be shared!"

Jaune blinked multiple times. "Uh…" His eyes landed on Sophia's journal and he smiled. "Sure Doctor. As long as you give Sophia Sand credit on the research."

Oobleck's head bobbed up and down so violently it was in danger of being dislodged. "Of course, Mister Arc, of course! You'll most assuredly get extra credit for class, as well."

"That would be good." Jaune said with a rueful chuckle. "I missed a lot of class…"

"So what happened when you left the city, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.

Jaune briefly hesitated before saying that he'd had to bypass a goliath to get out of the city, not wanting to explain his bow's special ability just yet, which mentioning the Orochi would do. Then he talked about the weeks after that as he made his way back out till he reached Gernsback as it was being attacked.

"The rest you know." He said as he finished off his soda.

"Wow…" Nora said with a big grin. "That's better than my stories."

"Mister Arc, I would appreciate it if you would consider giving a few lectures in my class about the Grimm you encountered and how you fought them." Professor Port said after a moment.

Jaune blinked. "Wait, what?"

Port laughed his usual laugh. "Don't be so surprised. You've seen Grimm that even I haven't. Not only is your knowledge on their weaknesses extremely valuable, enough so that I do believe I'll ask you to submit some papers on them to disseminate, but your experience in dealing with Grimm you had no information on could help the other students if they ever find themselves in a similar situation." Port smiled as he saw Jaune's continued indecisiveness. "I'll make it worth your time by giving you a guaranteed A+ for the year should your contributions in the class warrant it."

"Deal!" Jaune shouted, knowing better than to pass up a guaranteed A+.

"Excellent!" Port said jovially. "I'll adjust my lesson plans to accommodate you."

It was when they all saw Jaune yawn, eyelids drooping now that he'd had a good meal and the explanations were over that Ozpin intervened once again. "I think that's enough, everybody. Mister Arc deserves a nice hot shower and some rest in a real bed. If he feels up to answering any further questions he will do so later."

The crowd dispersed under Glynda's glare, a few of the students congratulating Jaune on making it back, Sun and Neptune chief among them. Then RWBY and JNPR led their friend back to the dorm, all of them feeling protective of him.

"Jaune?" Ruby asked when they reached the door to JNPR's room, prompting the tired blonde to turn to look at her. She then proceeded to give him another hug, holding him as tight as she could. "I'm glad you're back."

Jaune blinked before smiling, holding Ruby gently. "So am I, Rubes." He let her go and ruffled her hair. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, ok?" Once she nodded he smiled before heading into his room.

He looked around the room he'd shared with his team for so long and that he'd dreamt of getting back to. The way simply standing there made him feel was… indescribable. He looked at his side of the room, seeing that it lay untouched but clean, obviously having been taken care of for his return. It brought a warmth to his chest he'd missed.

"Go get a shower, Jaune." Ren said as he sat down on his bed with a small smile, Nora flopping onto her own with a big grin. "Then you can get some sleep. We'll talk more tomorrow."

"Yes." Pyrrha said, a large smile that seemed to be permanently stuck there on her face. "We have lots to talk about."

Moments later Jaune stood under the almost scaldingly hot spray of the shower, moaning in pleasure as the hot water soothed muscles that hadn't relaxed in months. The only thing that could have made things better was if it was a bath and not a shower.

After a longer than necessary time under the water and getting clean, Jaune glanced at himself in the mirror, taking in the scraggly beard he'd grown while away from any grooming supplies. Deciding that he was too tired to deal with it now, the blonde answered the siren song of his bed, leaving the fogged up bathroom to find his teammates happily discussing his return.

He looked at them all, taking them in once more as they did the same with him, his heart swelling with emotion, before he smiled and said "Goodnight guys" and flopped down onto his bed, already asleep by the time they'd responded.

* * *

 _ **Hello all.**_

 _ **I realize that not much happened in this chapter. It was more of a transition than anything else. We'll have more reactions from various people going forward. I was actually going to have a small part with Cinder's reaction at the end but decided to leave that for later with the rest of the reactions.**_

 _ **On another note, holy crap. Over a fifth of all the reviews for this story came after the last chapter. I'm guessing you all like it, huh?**_

 _ **Alright, I'll leave this here. I don't think there's anything else to say, and I'm falling asleep. Hope you all enjoyed, and don't forget about my Pat A Ron at dotcom /athanmortis.**_

 _ **Till next time.**_


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